Home
by Windslayer
Summary: [Dogsbody] Kathleen must travel to the ends of the universe before she can find the place she has been searching for all her life. The place everyone wants to find. The place she belongs. Home.
1. Live and Let Die

Disclaimer: I don't own Dogsbody, or any of the characters associated with the book. They all belong to DWJ. So please, no suing.

* * *

"They're complaining again you know. About your absence of a Companion."

"Let them complain. I have no intention of getting one anytime this millennim."

"They're threatening to appoint one themselves for you if you don't get one yourself."

Sirius blazed green fire. "Appoint me my own Companion!" he roared, but his roar had grown less considerable that it had been before the Incident, as it was now known throughout the heavens.

Sol shook his head. "I'm only repeating what they told us," he said. "They've been after you for years. Now they're tired of letting you get your way. Fools," he added. Sol was not one for committee meetings or judgments. He only attended the recent one because it concerned his friend.

"They can't do this to me Sol," said the fiery luminary. "I won't let them. I'll fight them…" his voice drifted off. Lately he was not motivated to fly into one of his fiery rages.

"How?" asked Sol. "They want you to get one within the next ten years. They won't wait any longer than that."

"Ten years!" Sirius asked. He had meant for his voice to rise several more decibels than it did. "Only ten years? Who can I possibly get with only that amount of time?" His voice betrayed his true feelings. Sol knew what the trouble was.

Sirius had wanted her for his Companion since he returned to the star world. She was almost twenty eight now. Sirius had managed to hide his changes well, but everyone heard his fierce roar rip through the heavens much less often than it did before the Incident.

Everyone had their own theories on that as well. Since no one believed that Sirius could ever truly change by himself, some claimed that he was being controlled by his Companion somewhere, that she had never truly died. Others claimed that he was so devastated over the treachery of his Companion that it had addled even his great luminary brain. A small faction believed that it was not truly Sirius, but another, identical luminary brought in to solve the political crisis in the heavens at the time. That faction was still searching for Sirius on Earth whenever Sol's back was turned. Only five entities knew the truth. Earth, Moon, Sol, Polaris (the only Effulgency outside of Sol that Sirius trusted these days) and Sirius himself.

Sol had been worried about the change in his friend of late. Sirius wasn't himself, even less so than after his return to the star world. He sulked about his sphere and brooded, and hadn't lost his temper in years. Sol didn't think it was healthy.

"You're lonely," he had told Sirius one day. Sirius gave him a look that would have had the fiercest luminary begging for mercy. Sol just stared right back.

"Don't be ridiculous," had been Sirius' long awaited reply.

Now they sat in Sirius' sphere, discussing the latest meeting which Sirius had not attended.

"I have to go," declared Sol. "Think about this. You need a new Companion soon. Polaris and I can do nothing if all the luminaries rise up and demand it of you." Sirius did nothing but sigh. Sol left, shaking his head, and returned to his sphere, bringing light back to Earth once more.

Sirius got up from his seat and wandered to the lower levels of his sphere. He looked down and opened the floor to reveal his other sphere, the sphere he controlled as opposed to where he lived and controlled it from.

Below thousands of spheres of light sparked different colors and intensities. Blue and red and green and purple and white. He turned away from the white ones and instead looked into space. The vast blackness of the universe lay like an enormous road, the end of which seemed so far away and yet so near. The music of the spheres soared in his ears, and he closed his eyes and willed the music to take him far away. The music swelled and dipped and flew. But there was no where to take him. Sirius slowly opened his eyes again.

He saw the smaller spheres within his own; the first he saw was a sphere slightly less bright than the one he called home. Here was Polaris' sphere, which had become the brightest in Earth's sky for a brief time seventeen years ago.

He looked at his other spheres, and the spheres outside his own that belonged to ones of equal or greater rank as he, Sirius. Some spheres drifted along without purpose. Here was where Polaris' brothers lived, what she had called the Big Dipper. And Antares and Betelgeuse and all the others. Next to him, a ways off, was Andromeda's sphere, spiraling so much like his own. He almost smiled when he remembered what they had called his sphere on earth.

The Milky Way.

It was a childish name for his proud sphere, yet because she had called it this, he now referred to it by the same name.

Finally, his eyes fell upon Sol's sphere, and the tiny, pretty green and blue sphere inside it that was called Earth. Here was lost a year of his life. A year that, despite how long he had existed before it, was the first year that he had truly ever lived. And the last.

He had died in more ways than one that night.

* * *

Who are you? She thought to herself as she stared into the mirror. Who were you? What are you to become? She touched her reflection. 

"You aren't who you were. I'm tired of looking at you," she said aloud.

Kathleen stood alone in her bedroom in her long blue nightdress, staring at her reflection, disgusted. She had woken from a dream in which she was young again. Before she came to England. When her father and mother were both still alive. She had been wandering through a field of flowers with both of her parents. They were picking flowers and putting them in her hair. Then a giant Duffie had appeared out of nowhere. Kathleen woke up screaming.

Sleep was no longer an option, which is what led her to staring at her own reflection. On the surface, no one would see any reason as to why Kathleen would feel this way. Kathleen had become a very pretty woman. Her face had a more mature look to it, but still retained a child-like cuteness. She had a slim figure and beautiful hair that had curled slightly and hung around her face in waves. Yet she felt like punching a fist through that mirror. Instead she turned away.

"Everything has been going wrong," she thought. "Ever sinceI left Ireland. I don't belong here." She sighed. She hadn't acted like this in a long time. She never would have acted like this before…

* * *

Sirius watched from his sphere as Kathleen shook her head and went to go watch television to try and fall asleep. It killed him to see her so depressed. He couldn't help but blame himself. If he hadn't been so hell bent on getting that Zoi, if he had just stopped to think for a minute what it would do to him, and what that in turn would do to Kathleen. But he hadn't. He had thought only of himself, and now they both had to pay for it. 

Ever since he had returned to the star world he had watched her. He had done his best to try and keep Kathleen happy, and where he could not interfere Sol had for him.

Kathleen had been dealt a double blow that day. Her father had died, been shot even, and the one thing that could make her forget her pain, help her regain some sense of sanity, was gone. Leo was dead.

Sirius and Sol had done their best there, providing her with both a new home and a new dog, which she named Milky, after the band of stars she had suddenly and mysteriously grown so fond of. But though Miss Smith tried, she couldn't replace Kathleen's mother and father. And Milky was no Sirius. Still, she loved both dearly.

Then Sol had come to Sirius five years later and informed him that Miss Smith's heart was failing. She had maybe two years left. Sol had dragged out those two years as long as he could. And when it had happened, he made sure Kathleen was out of the house. Sirius could do nothing but watch in horror as Kathleen collapsed into sobs in the hospital waiting room when the doctor had come to tell her. Someone had let Milky in, and she licked Kathleen's face and wondered why her young master was crying. She snuggled up to Kathleen in the waiting room and Kathleen put her arms around her neck and cried into her curly brown coat. Sirius couldn't help but feel jealous. Comforting Kathleen had been his job.

Sirius had decided to come to Earth in human form for the funeral. He showed up in a black tux with dark green pinstripes, and stood in the back as Kathleen gave the eulogy with tears streaming down her cheeks.

He returned to his sphere after the funeral and continued to watch her. He watched as she inherited Miss Smith's house. She fell in love with the man of her dreams and was happy once again.

Her wedding was small. Her husband's immediate family on wide side in the big, lofty church, and Robin on the other. Both Mr. and Mrs. Duffield were dead by this time, not that Duffie would have come anyway, and Basil was off on an archeological trek in Egypt somewhere. No one walked Kathleen down the aisle.

No one that could be seen at least. Sirius had been there the whole time, walking down the aisle next to Kathleen, and when they reached the end everyone thought it was the wind that lifter her veil. Kathleen even tried to brush off the small kiss she had clearly felt on her forehead as a trick of her mind. But she was glad her mind had tricked her. It filled her with encouragement and happiness, and her wedding day ended up being the happiest day of her life.

Not even Kathleen could see Sirius. She gained and lost her ability to see luminaries in one night.

He watched Kathleen be happy with married life for five years. Then Sol had come with news again. Kathleen had something called 'cancer.' Sirius hadn't understood what it was, but it involved Kathleen being cut open and things taken out of her belly, and then losing her beautiful hair and looking pale and sickly for a long, long time afterward.

Throughout all of this Sirius had been worrying constantly, wondering how he could turn this around and make it happier for her. He distanced himself from everyone during this time, and had even raged at Sol for telling Sirius that there was nothing he could do. Sirius could never remember being this concerned about anyone, not even his Companion when she had been alive.

Kathleen had recovered, but she was not whole. The surgery had damaged her, and she could never have children of her own.

Sirius was there when she cried again over the children that she would never have and had never existed. Milky died of old age during this time, and Kathleen never really emotionally recovered enough to be ready for the next poor hand life dealt her.

Her husband was having an affair.

Some nurse he had met at the clinic where Kathleen went. Kathleen was too shocked for words when she found out, and Sirius had flown into another one of his rages. This one was worse than before, and the scientists on Earth took note of the strange color of the Milky Way during this time, a bright, glowing green.

When she kicked her husband out, Sirius and Sol made sure he would never come back, or go anywhere again.

Kathleen was so removed from the sweet girl that had taken in a small puppy and volunteered to become a virtual slave for the privilege of keeping it. Life had beaten her down, cast her aside, and she was tired of looking in the mirror.

Only recently, Sirius began to suspect something else was at work. It didn't seem right that someone he was trying so hard to protect and prevent anything from happening to was suffering so much hardship. "A rift in the balance," Sol had called it, trying to explain to Sirius that every creature on Earth suffered hardship, some more than others.

"You try to do everything in your power to help her. It causes a rift in the balance and things have to go wrong in her life for the balance to right itself again," Sol had explained.

"But it seems as if there is another rift in the balance," Sirius had shouted back. "Now to much evil is happening to her. Its more powerful than I am." Sol, for once, had nothing to reply to that.

And now here she was. It wounded Sirius to see her like this.

"If only I hadn't left… Sol told me himself he would have found the Zoi eventually. If only I hadn't been so blind," he lamented. "If only."

Sirius looked away from Sol's sphere. Instead he looked and wondered if there were problems to solve elsewhere. Preferably problems that wouldn't be so that he felt that he would rip his own wings off if only it would make the problem a little better.

* * *

Earth had barely turned on her axis seven times when Sol came to visit Sirius again. To Sirius it seemed like hardly any time had passed at all. In truth Sol was very worried about Sirius, and had some disturbing news for him. They stood in the lowest level of Sirius' sphere, with the entire galaxy below them. 

"Sirius," began Sol slowly. "It's Kathleen again." Sirius rounded on him, his eyes blazing green fire.

"If anyone's hurt her again I swear…"

"Do you think I'd let that happen again?" asked Sol, indignant. "No. It's the cancer. It's back and this time…" he didn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to. Sirius knew what he meant.

"No… Sol… NO!" he raged. It looked like he was about to completely lose his temper and Sol braced himself for the impact. He was used to this by now. But the fiery blast did not come. Instead the green blazing fire around Sirius faded, and his great wings drooped.

"Is there… anything you can do?" he asked imploringly, almost pathetically. Sol was reminded of the day he had been asked if he could open the gate to Sirius' small backyard prison. He was just as touched and embarrassed as he had been back then. Why should a great Denizen like Sirius address him so? Sol turned away and the light around him flashed and sparkled as he struggled to cover up his feelings.

"I'm sorry Sirius," he said, turning around. "I can do nothing to stop her from…passing on."

"Then she will travel to her Afterworld and I shall never see her again!" cried Sirius. A bright green liquid suddenly tricked from his eye. Sol immediately turned away so his friend could collect himself.

When he deemed it safe to turn around again he spoke. "But Sirius," he began. "I think we might be able to solve two problems at once."

Sirius picked his head up. "How?" he asked, and Sol saw a long gone spark return to Sirius' eyes.

"You want to see her again, and you don't want the Committee to appoint you a Companion. Don't pretend you wouldn't want her as your Companion. You are a lonely wreck without her, and it seems like everyone but me is blind to it, even you!" Sol burned white hot, and was more than a little taken aback at his own recklessness. Had he addressed any other Effulgency as such he would have been formally tried and executed.

Sirius said nothing, but the small ember of fire that had been in his eyes glowed brighter, almost as it had before the Incident.

"How will you do it Sol?" he asked. "How can it be done!"

Sol knew that there were flaws. His plan was flimsy, and he hadn't expected Sirius to get this excited or for his fire to come back. But seeing his enthusiasm, Sol plodded onward.

"It would take all the time I have in the day to do it. But I could fill her soul with enough energy that instead of going to her Afterworld she would continue up into space, where her runaway soul could be apprehended. Of course, it would need a body identical to the one it had come from to house it, but that shouldn't be a problem for the Sirius Zoi."

Sirius wanted to shout with joy at the top of his lungs (something he had never done before) or give Sol his entire sphere as a thank you. Instead he did nothing but stare at Sol with his wide eyes blazing.

"But," Sol continued. "There is only one day I would be able to accomplish this. She would have to die on the longest day of the year, giving me plenty of time to fill her soul with energy before and after she dies."

"And if she doesn't die on the longest day of the year?" questioned Sirius, almost afraid of the answer.

"Then she is lost to you forever," replied Sol sadly.

"How much time do we have?"

"Her expected life span from now on is 181 days away. The longest day of the year is 182 days away."

"That's cutting it pretty close," commented Sirius.

"Don't we always?" replied Sol.

* * *

Sirius had six months to prepare. The first thing he did was use the Zoi to create an identical duplicate of Kathleen, only because it didn't have a soul it didn't function at all. He had even dressed it in Kathleen's current favorite dress. Sirius kept it deep within the lower levels of his sphere because it pained him to look at it. 

But he now had something he hadn't had in a long time. Hope.

* * *

Robin came to visit her almost every day now and Basil only when he could find the time. She knew she was dying. She could feel her one time seemingly infinite life force slipping away from her, bit by bit. 

"It's not fair Robin," she had told him one day. He simply sat on the chair next to her bed and nodded. "I haven't experienced enough of the goodness of life to die yet. This is not how it was supposed to go." She turned on her side.

"What do you want out of life Robin?" she asked him suddenly. Robin looked at her strangely. She had only asked this question once before, many years ago, when she had been a different person. He hadn't had an answer for her then.

"What do I want?" he repeated. "I want to go to my grave knowing that I influenced everyone I met in some good way. I don't care if I'm remembered or not. Just that people learned something good from me, and never forgot it. I want my legacy to live on." Kathleen smiled at him.

"You've influenced at least one," she said, taking Robin's strong hand in her thin, frail one. "You've changed too Robin. You're stronger than you used to be. In many ways."

"What did you want?" he asked her. Her smile faded.

"I don't know. I never did know what I really wanted out of life. I suppose I'll never find it now." A grim smirk flitted across her face. "Darkness in life has seen to that."

"Don't say that Kath," he said. "You know there's a reason for everything. The bad and the good. You'll see down the line."

"What line!" she cried as loud as she dared. "There is no line Robin. This is the end of the line for me. This hospital bed in this stupid room."

"What about Heaven?" he asked her simply.

"Who knows if that's even real?" she replied, softly and bitterly, as if she herself didn't want to admit it was even a possibility.

"Of course it's real," he said. "I wouldn't lie to you Kath. Heaven is different for everyone, but it exists." She smiled at him again.

"Alright Robin. I believe you."

* * *

Tomorrow was the longest day of the year. Kathleen highly doubted she would life to see it. Her systems had been shutting down. Her life force was drained down to almost nothing. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open enough to stare at the curtain that separated her bed from the new patient's. 

He was a bit of an enigma. They had brought him in during the night, and Kathleen hadn't heard a peep out of him since. Not even a rustle of the bed sheets.

Her curiosity overwhelmed her, and she made a secret pact with herself that she would not die until she had seen the stranger's face. For some reason it seemed important to her.

It was the only reason she was not afraid to close her eyes that night.

"I won't die," she told herself as she felt sleep taking hold of her. "I promised myself I would see him, and I won't die until I have done it.

She traveled away to her dreams. She stalked in and out of gray and black nightmares, with black and deep blue things clawing at her and threatening her. In these dreams someone would always show up, or sometimes it was just light. The green fiery someone or the green light would always beat back the darkness and leave her path clear. But in the next dream the darkness came again, with more of it, and somehow darker than before. As time went on she sensed the green person was losing control of the situation, and he stopped showing up altogether. Not that he could have seen anything anyway. It was to dark to see anything clearly.

But though the darkness seemed threatening, Kathleen was not afraid of it. Though it dug its claws into her she felt no pain. Somehow the light and the darkness were working together to bring her somewhere. Or to learn something. But as long as the dreams might go on, she never seemed to get to her destination.

* * *

She opened her eyes the next morning, relieved that she was able to stare at the blank ceiling of the miserable room. She turned her head and saw the curtains covering the bed next to her were drawn back, and there was no one in the bed. There had been someone there though, she was sure of that. 

She turned on her other side and stared out the low window. Below her she saw the small, sunny yard that was available to recuperating patients. It was like a very small park surrounded on two sides by tall, gray hospital walls. One of the sides that was not covered by a wall looked out onto the small town, and when the day was clear a person sitting on one of the benches could see all the way to the blue sea.

In one corner was a small Japanese garden complete with Koi pond. In another corner rose bushes climbed the walls all the way up to the third floor. She was sorry she would not live to see them all in bloom.

As she stared into the sunny yard she felt a growing sense of strangeness. Her bodily systems were shutting themselves down, she could feel that. But it seemed as if another energy was filling her. She felt almost giddy.

As she continued to stare out the window the morning's light fog lifted and she saw the rooftops of the town below. She was not at the right angle to see the ocean. And she wanted to. She desperately wanted to.

Kathleen pressed the call button on the side of her bed again and again until one of the nurses came in.

"I want to go outside," she told her in a scratchy voice. "I want to see the ocean."

The nurse smiled hugely. Kathleen could tell it was fake even in her condition.

"You're not well enough to go outside dear," said the nurse cheerily. "But once you're well again you can look at it all you want!"

"I'm dying," said Kathleen simply. "Can't you find it in your heart to grant a woman's dying wish?"

"You're not dying dear!" said the nurse, feigning surprise. "We would know if you were!" Then the nurse checked all of the machines that were poked into Kathleen and left.

"But I am dying," she protested. "I am going to die without seeing the ocean." She looked at the clock. It read 4 pm.

"The sun will go down in four and a half hours," she said to the ceiling. "That's when I go down to. I'm sure of it."

* * *

Around 6 the nurse came back and brought her dinner. Kathleen didn't eat it. She was too worried about not seeing the ocean. The new patient hadn't come back yet. Maybe he was outside, enjoying the sunshine. After a half hour of pushing around the food on her tray, Kathleen heard footsteps down the hall. She hoped it was the nurse coming back to take the food away. 

Instead a man entered. A bandage was wrapped around his head and a little blood shown through it. He had several shallow cuts on his face and stitches formed an ugly line from his right ear to the tip of his chin. He could only be the new patient.

He looked at her for a few seconds.

"You want to go outside, don't you?" he asked her. Somehow she wasn't surprised that he knew this. She felt as if she had seen him before, but she couldn't place him.

Without saying another word he crossed the room, pulled the wires and needles out of Kathleen and lifted her into his arms. She wasn't alarmed or frightened in the least. She knew he would not hurt her.

The stranger carried her down several flights of stairs. She chanced a look into his face and saw that his eyes were a deep blue, almost black. She could see those eyes swallowing light and never returning it.

He carried her outside and set her down on the stone bench facing the sea. The sun grew steadily orange and red, and it glinted off rooftops and chimneys. The sea turned the color of fire, and the clouds in the distance were purple, blue, and pink flames.

She leaned against the stranger and smiled. This would be the last thing she would ever see.

Yet she felt, incomplete somehow.

"I never knew what I wanted out of life," she said.

"You didn't have enough time to figure it out yet," he replied. "But you'll see it. You'll find it soon."

"I think I'm out of time."

"You're never out of time. Even when your body is gone, your soul will live. You have all the time in the world to figure out what you want out of life."

"But there is no life without a body. Even if my soul found what it was searching for, I wouldn't be able to act on it."

"Of course you can. You have all time to act on it. That's what this part of our journey is for. To get us to ask ourselves what we want. And in the next life is where we act on it. You have a special task in the next part of your journey anyway. You will find what you are searching for."

"Special?" she said doubtfully. "I wasn't anything ever. What is dying going to change?"

"Dying, like birth, changes much."

Kathleen suddenly shuddered. Her face began to twitch. This was it.

"Goodbye," she told the stranger.

"See you soon, Kathleen," he replied. As the sun set, Kathleen's eyes closed onto darkness.

* * *

"Where is she?" thought Sirius desperately. "Sol should have set on her by now!" Suddenly, a golden light shot up from the green and blue sphere. It soared through the heavens, faster than Sirius' wings had ever carried him before. There was something else there, he noticed. It was a strange color, blue and white and hid from him on the other side of Earth. He couldn't be concerned with it though. Kathleen was coming. 

As Kathleen's soul sped toward him, Sirius held out his Zoi. The Zoi shot out a thin silvery web, which trapped her soul in its fine cords. Grinning and laughing, Sirius flew off toward his sphere with Kathleen in tow.

He entered through the lower level of his sphere and headed straight for the room that held the duplicate of her body. When the soul met the body, Sirius released the Zoi's hold on her and she embraced her body, entering into it at the same time. The body glowed for a brief moment, and then fell to the ground in a heap. When nothing further happened, Sirius suddenly became terrified that something might have gone wrong and her soul was lost forever.

But at last she stirred. She got up from the floor and stood up, holding out her hands and staring at them, astonished. She turned her hand over and bent her fingers. Then she bent her arms and cracked her neck. Finally she looked up at Sirius and he saw the joy of being alive and in a healthy body fade from her eyes. In fact her eyes were turning colder.

"Do you remember me?" he asked her. He panicked again. Had she forgotten all about him? Did she even have the slightest memory? He began wondering how he could make her remember him again and how he could explain this all to him.

"Of course I remember you," she said curtly. His heart gave a leap.

"I would never forget your face. I hate you. You took away my joy." Her eyes became moist. "You killed him. You killed my Leo."


	2. Shattered

Look at me, I'm in tatters. I'm a shattered Shattered - Rolling Stones

* * *

Sirius froze. The green fire around began pulsating, like a heart lay under all the layers of fire. He felt his fist clench, and didn't know why. 

"Is this hell?"

Her voice bit into him. Filled with anger. Contempt. Hatred.

"I-I didn't kill him…" began Sirius lamely.

"Don't lie!" retorted Kathleen sharply. "I saw you. You used your powers and murdered him in cold blood! Then you reached out and tried to burn me with your hideous fire!"

Sirius knew that if he had what humans called a heart; its breaking would feel like exactly what he was feeling now. She turned her back on him.

"Why am I here?" she asked him.

"I brought you here," said Sirius softly. "You…you were dying, so I stopped you from dying and brought you here."

"Why? To torture me further!" she screamed, rounding on him.

Sirius didn't answer. He was broken.

"Take me back to Earth! Now!" she demanded.

"I don't know how," he replied mechanically.

"So I'm stuck in this hell forever!"

"You're room is here," said Sirius, indicating a door on the right. She entered and slammed the door behind her. He heard the tumblers click as she locked the door behind her.

Sirius turned away. Numbly he wandered through the halls of his sphere, her words playing over and over in his mind.

"I hate you. You killed him. You killed him. You took my joy. You killed him. YOU KILLED HIM!"

"But I didn't!" Sirius cried aloud to his thoughts. He shook his head. "No," he said. "No I didn't kill Leo. I was Leo. NO!"

With a strangled cry, he spread his double wings and flew out into the Milky Way, desperate to find someone who could fix this mess.

Kathleen stared at the room. It was quiet large, and filled with all sorts of things she had had on earth. There was a T.V., a computer, and all of her favorite books lined the shelves of a large bookcase in the corner.

"Stalker," she muttered under her breath.

How dare he bring her here! She could not believe him as he stood there in all fire and wings and lied to her. The murderer! The only reason he had brought her here was obviously to do harm to her in some way! Just like he had done when he killed Leo.

Leo. Leo had been her best friend. He listened to her when she read to him, he had understood her and cared about her and protected her. He brought her to Miss Smith's where she was cared for instead of being made into a slave. She had loved him.

But one strange night had taken him away.

She could never remember exactly what happened that night. She and Basil and Robin had been searching for Leo… Basil had found a meteor and Robin found a puppy… and the devil with wings had killed her dog.

No, she was defiantly missing something there. She just couldn't remember what.

She wandered around the room, poking in drawers and the wardrobe. The wardrobe was filled with dresses similar to her own on earth, but the dresser was empty. She tried to turn on the television, but realized it had no power cord and felt very light when she tried to lift it. The computer was the same. Apparently her captor understood the concept of the objects, but not how the functioned.

"Wonderful," she said, sitting on the bed. "I'm a prisoner somewhere and the one I hate the most is the prison warden. What did that guy say? 'You have a special task.'" She groaned. "Moron."

The second she said it she felt bad she did. After all, didn't he help her fulfill her dying wish? Hadn't he brought her to the sea? She shrugged her shoulders.

"Guess he was a bit wrong about the afterlife."

* * *

Sorry about the short chapter. Just wanted to let you all know this wasnt a one shot. Hopefully I wont be too busy now that midterms are almost over, and I can get a much longer chapter out soon. 


	3. Across the Universe

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe. Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box; they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe -Across the Universe - The Beatles

* * *

"Sol is seeing no one today Sirius," the Flare said again. "Not even you." 

"But-" began Sirius.

"I'm sorry!" the Flare interrupted, annoyed. "Sol left us all explicit instructions not to let anyone in today. Come back tomorrow maybe, and he will be better." The orange Flare shuffled his feet and shifted his spear from hand to hand nervously. It was not wise to become angry at Sirius, ever. But something seemed wrong today. The Flare noticed that the light in Sirius' eyes was completely gone.

Sirius sighed. He didn't have the will to rage, he had hardly the will to do anything. He nodded meekly. Turning back towards the universe, he spread his wings and slowly flew away, trailing a light green streak across the black.

Mildly, he wondered what was wrong with Sol. Sol had never refused to see anyone before. He hoped it wasn't serious.

As he drifted across the universe, he tried not to think of what had happened. Kathleen wasn't really back at his sphere. She was still on earth, she still didn't remember him. Of course that was what had happened.

He suddenly let out a scream of anguish and buried his head in his hands. Green fire exploded in all directions, causing celestials of all sorts to jump and panic. The green fire burned fiercely and pulsated, lighting up the Milky Way like a beacon for all of space. Sirius drifted down, down, down, through his sphere, and thought of nothing but the fire and how to make in burn hotter.

* * *

Sol felt the explosion. He turned his head toward the sound and saw Sirius, falling, rather than floating, down through the Milky Way. He made to get up, but the complete absence of energy forced him back down again. 

"Sol, stop," commanded Firiana. "You can't get up and you know that. Firiana made her way across the room to where he lay in bed. "You expended far too much energy on the Earth being to do anything today."

"But Sirius… Something's wrong!" protested Sol.

"And I'm sure whatever it is he can tell you about tomorrow! Please Sol, you'll never get your energy back again like this!" Firiana tucked the blankets in tighter around him. "Do you need anything?" she asked.

"I need to know what's wrong with Sirius."

"You can find out later. I don't want you worrying or becoming anxious over anything today, okay?" Firiana bowed and left the room.

Sol sighed. Firiana meant well, but he needed to find out what was wrong. He was sure it had something to do with Kathleen. Sirius was completely devoted to her, and if anything was wrong he would be in need of help. He tried to get up again, but to no avail.

"Sorry Sirius," he said to the falling image. "I guess this time you'll have to go it alone."

* * *

Sirius had fallen past the Milky Way by now. He fell lying on his back, his wings fluttering lifelessly at his sides. He drew his fire into him and watched his sphere fly away as he fell through space. For the first time he saw how small it really was, how insignificant in the great body of the universe. Yet he was so important, so revered among celestials. Somehow it didn't make sense. 

He was falling still, now somewhere near Delphi's sphere. In a distance corner of his mind he dimly recalled that Delphi was somewhere near the edge of the known universe. If he fell much farther he would certainly be lost among the darkness of the Unknown. He smiled at the thought. He would disappear completely. They would have to replace him, again, and this time it would be permanent. Sol wouldn't like it, of course, but he would get used to the matter after the first millennia or so. He might even forget. Everyone would forget.

Purple rushed passed him as he fell through Delphi's sphere. He saw the shocked face of Delphi for only a moment before it was lost in the purple haze.

Of course, there was the small matter of an earth being in the green sphere, but he supposed Sol could deal with that. Send her back to wherever she came from. Make her forget. That would be the easiest.

"How long will I fall?" he whispered to himself. The stars began to thin out. He was falling toward the Unknown.

"It's cold," he thought for a moment. He called up the last of his dumb dog sense and placed it like a film over his mind. Instantly his thoughts were dulled. His senses grew sharper. He heard the music of the spheres for the first time since he had been falling. But the sweet music was now a discordant melody. Everything was dissonance.

* * *

"He's gone darling! We didn't have to do a thing! He tied himself to a dead weight and look at how he falls! He'll be gone forever!" 

"Don't be too sure my sweet. You know how he is. He might pull himself out yet."

"Oh please, look at him! He's finished! Good thing too, he finished himself. No questions asked."

"And we don't have to worry about the earth being. Most likely she'll be destroyed by the Council. What they did was completely against regulations. It's funny really. He gives up everything for her, and they both are destroyed in the end.

"The perfect story my darling"

"Yes my sweet. The perfect story."

They raised their Zoi together, and in a blinding flash of light, they both disappeared.

* * *

The green explosion knocked Polaris off his chair. Suddenly green was everywhere, and a cry of despair reached his ears. 

"It's Sirius," he said to Alpha. "Good! He needs to get angry again!" he cried triumphantly.

"He needs to get angry?" questioned Alpha. "Years ago you hated him for his rages!"

"I know, but Sirius has changed. Truth be told I was worried about him!" He reclined in his chair and put his feet on the table.

Alpha was making his weekly visit. Polaris and Alpha had been friends for eons, and every week Alpha had come over to Polaris' sphere to chat. By now all they had left to talk about was current events.

Because of Sirius' outburst, the topic quickly changed to the subdued Celestial. Alpha had to get back to his own sphere shortly, and Polaris had one thing left to say.

"You know Alpha, I'll tell you something I've hardly told anyone before." Alpha's ears perked up. "While he was on Earth, Sirius became very attached to an Earth human girl. It seems he would do anything for her! He and Sol are even cooking up some crazy scheme to bring her up here!" Polaris laughed heartily, and Alpha along with him.

"Ah poor Sirius," said Alpha. "A once great celestial, now bound to such a meaningless lesser being!"

* * *

The stars were even thinner now. Unknown was fast approaching, its darkness beginning to envelop him like a blanket. 

He thought of Kathleen. Not the Kathleen that existed now, but a younger Kathleen, one filled with life and vigor and happiness even in the face of impossible odds. Who made a wish to be able to talk to her dog when she could have had anything in the world. Who saved a half drowned puppy from the river, and sold her soul to a she-demon to keep it. His Kathleen.

There was no turning back now. The darkness lay like a dark pool right below him. A few more seconds of falling and it would all be over. He closed his eyes, and smiled.

Suddenly his falling was stopped. A soft hand had grabbed his own and was pulling him up from the darkness. The hand burned with its own fire, similar but separate from Sirius'. Goodness radiated from the other's fire. It was warmth and gentleness. Sirius opened his eyes.

Andromeda, burning pink fire, was pulling him up from the dark abyss. Her face was very sad, and she held out her other hand, hoping Sirius would take it.

"Come Sirius," she said softly. "The dark is no place for fire like yours. We have to see your fire and we can't if you are in the dark. Come back with me." Her eyes were pleading. "Please Sirius. Come back."

Sirius stared back at her. The sight of her had shattered his film of dog sense. He suddenly realized what he was doing. He wondered why Andromeda was helping him.

Sirius looked at her outstretched hand and then back to her face. A small pink tear was rolling down her cheek. "Please," she repeated. "Please."

"Andromeda…" he breathed. He couldn't understand why she was doing this, much less why she was so upset. The warmth glowed.

Sirius placed his hand in hers. Her face fell with relief, and more tears fell from her eyes. With her strong gentle arms she pulled him far away from the darkness that had almost swallowed him. She stared at his hollow green eyes and he stared at her bright burning pink eyes, both afraid of what would happen if they broke the connection.


	4. Prayer

Another dream that will never come true just to compliment your sorrow. Another life I've taken from you, a gift to add to your pain and suffering. Another truth you can never believe has crippled you completely. All the cries you're beginning to hear, trapped in your mind and the sound is deafening.- Prayer, Disturbed

* * *

Kathleen opened the door a crack and looked to the left and right. No one was around. Quietly she crept out into the hallway. It seemed the monster was not at home. 

She slowly wandered throughout the halls of the sphere. There were several halls branching off from the one in which her cell was located. Doors lined the walls of these hallways, but each one was locked.

Upon closer inspection, she noticed something odd about the material the sphere seemed to be made of. The walls that looked like polished stone were actually not solid. They pulsed, slightly, like somewhere in the great sphere a heart was beating. Sparkles drifted inside them, as if the walls were made of pieces of stars. The floors were like the walls in some spots, and were made of green clouds in others. These clouds supported her weight easily.

As she wandered around this dream-like world Kathleen came upon a spiral staircase. Gathering up her courage as to what might await at the top, she began to climb.

"I feel like I'm in a movie," she muttered. "Where's the pipe organ music?"

The staircase was long and exhausting. Ever so often there would be a landing where she would sit and rest for a minute before resuming her climb. At one point on the stairs she stepped wrong and almost toppled down, but she managed to grab onto the railing just in time.

The stairs were of a slightly different color than the bright green that everything else was made of. It was a darker, more intense green, and the sparkles in the material seemed to flow downward, like the whole thing was made of some thick liquid.

Kathleen tripped forward and fell face first into the floor. To her great relief and surprise the floor was soft and cushiony when she fell, like a giant mattress. She stood up again and the floor felt hard and firm under her feet. She shook her head in confusion and looked around.

She had finally reached the top of the stairs. Here there were two doors, a small door and a huge set of double doors. She tried the smaller first and, finding it locked, she pulled the great handle of one of the big doors. It gently swished open. Kathleen poked her head in and gasped at what she saw.

The entire room, besides the door and the floor, was one enormous window, and the universe spread out like a picture in front of her. She saw huge brightly burning stars so close she thought she could touch them. Distant collections of colorful glittering orbs told of far away galaxies. The band of stars she had grown so fond of, the Milky Way, was hung like a banner across her field of vision on all sides. As she crept closer to the edge of the clear substance she saw her own yellow sun, slightly dimmer than it seemed from earth.

She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Like a child peeking in a storefront window at Christmas, she pressed her nose against the substance and scanned the awesome view for another sign of movement. Suddenly she saw them.

"Angels," she breathed.

They all looked like angels. Out in that bright universe were angels traveling back and forth, all of different colors and heights and wing designs. She saw a woman with long red hair and small fairy wings. One that had the build of a male teenager sported a huge pair of yellow double wings on his back. The woman and several others bowed to him as he passed. He seemed to be in a hurry, as he nodded briefly and sped on his way.

Others sported dragon wings, single wings, fiery wings, she even saw a triple winged man pass by once. They rushed back and forth, they stopped to talk to each other, and they laughed and rushed off again. There seemed to be an excitement in the air that reached even Kathleen. She found herself smiling when she saw one of the angels laughing. She stopped almost immediately, turned away from the sight and sank down against the wall.

"What is this place?" she asked herself. "This cannot be heaven, not with that monster holding me captive here! Is this space? But that can't be! It isn't alive! Its just gas and molecules and… empty space… isn't it?" She shook her head. "Why did he bring me here!" she cried in anguish.

As she held her head in her hands the clouds at her feet began to open. Curiosity getting the better of her, she peered down and saw stars spread out across blackness, and three angels deep in conversation. As she stared, everything began rushing toward her. She braced herself for impact, but none came. She looked down again. The stars were rushing past her, like she was zooming in on something deep in the underside of space. Suddenly it stopped, and Kathleen was able to focus in on a green angel falling headfirst through space.

His face was one of detachedness, as if he didn't care what became of him. She felt a pulling at her heart for the poor angel. She looked closer, and then recoiled in horror. It was the monster! Her fists clenched.

How could she have called him an angel, felt bad for him even, when he was the one that had killed Leo? He wasn't an angel. He was a demon. What was he doing here, among all the ones that looked like angels? Were they all demons?

She crept back toward the window in the floor.

"I want to see what suffering he will endure," she told herself. "I… I hope it hurts him as much as he hurt me!"

All of a sudden something came rushing past the window. It was a pink, double winged woman, whose hair was as long as her ankles and in loose curls. The woman headed right for the monster.

"Don't help him!" she called, knowing she couldn't be heard. "He deserves whatever pain he is in right now!" The floor, as if sensing her anger, slowly closed in upon the two. Right before it closed, she heard something. It was a blast of what seemed like it should have been music, but to her was only noise. She covered her ears and ran out of the room, leaving the great sight, the floor, and the angels behind.

* * *

Andromeda cradled Sirius' head in her lap. They were in her sphere now, where everything was burning and pink, and Sirius lay on her sofa staring at the clear ceiling with nothing but sadness in his eyes. They hadn't spoken since Andromeda had rescued him. She had no idea what to say to him. He could have been lost forever in the darkness of the Unknown. She would not have that. 

Sirius knew he should have been confused. He should wonder why Andromeda had saved him. He should question why he had tried to lose himself. He should be wondering why Sol wasn't seeing anyone. But before he began to think he realized he was too drained to care about much of anything. He let Andromeda touch his face and stroke his hair. He didn't know what was going on.

"Sirius," she said, finally. "Tell me about it Sirius." She would not look him in the eye. "What happened."

"You… you don't really care do you?"

"Yes," she said honestly. "I do care. Why were you trying to… get lost?"

"Kathleen," he began. As he began talking he found that he couldn't stop. He told her all about being a dog, Sol, the betrayal of his Companion, the strange being he met the night of the hunt. He told her what he and Sol had done to make Kathleen happy since he had turned back into a celestial. Finally, he told Andromeda what Kathleen had said to him. Then he grew silent and stared at the ceiling.

Andromeda sat in silence. Several times during the story pink tears had welled up in her eyes. She remembered the Companion Sirius had had. Andromeda had hated her.

"I… I'm sorry Sirius," she said when his story was done.

He sighed. "Don't be. It's not like its your fault or anything."

"Sirius… I… Nevermind." Sirius got up.

"I'll go back to my sphere," he said dismally. "Maybe something has changed…" Andromeda got up as well.

"I'll go with you." Sirius opened his mouth to protest, then closed it and nodded. The sphere opened, and they flew off together towards the glimmering green galaxy.

* * *

"HE DIDN'T DIE! DAMN THAT… THAT HUSSY!" 

"Calm down love! We'll just have to go ahead with out plan is all!"

"BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY! WHY DID SHE GET INVOLVED!"

"Please darling. We'll fix her when the time comes. Don't worry, all we need to do is wait."

* * *

Sol struggled out of bed. He had been lying there for over five hours and he was bored. Finding that his legs once again supported him he went out of his room. Firiana ambushed him. 

"What are you doing out of bed?" she asked, accusingly.

"I'm fine now, I'm going over to see Sirius." Firiana made a small squeak of annoyance, then let him continue down the hallway. Sol jumped, spread his pair of orange wings and flew off.

When he arrived at the green sphere he knew Sirius was not at home, yet he heard footsteps somewhere in the maze of corridors. Sol followed the footsteps down and found himself face to face with a very surprised Earth woman. Kathleen, getting over her surprise, set her face into a scowl and decided to stare this winged creature down.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Sol," he replied simply. "Where is Sirius?"

"Is that the murderer's name?" she cried. "Sirius? The dogstar!"

Sol froze. Murderer? Everything suddenly began to fall into place.

"Why do you call him a murderer?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me why he brought me here!" Sol did not reply. As Kathleen stared into his face, she felt something familiar. She had met this creature somewhere before, but she could not place him.

There was a noise somewhere above them and within seconds Sirius and Andromeda appeared beside them.

"Get out of my sight!" Kathleen screamed at Sirius, and then ran down the hall. The three celestials heard a door slam somewhere in the depths of the sphere.

"Sirius…" Sol began. "I'm pretty sure I understand what's happened here, but could you fill me in so I'm sure?"

But Sirius kept staring down the hall where Kathleen had disappeared.

"Sirius? Sirius?" Sol snapped his fingers in front of Sirius face.

"What Sol?" he asked, distantly, still staring down the hall. Andromeda beckoned to Sol behind Sirius' back and they walked a few feet back down the hall to where Sirius couldn't see or hear them.

"Oh boy…" muttered Sol.

"Kathleen claims that Sirius killed Leo. She has blamed the death of Leo on all the problems she has had in her life, hence, she believes Sirius is the cause of all of her problems."

"His heart is broken," said Sol.

"I found him falling toward the Unknown space. He wanted to let the darkness just swallow him up. He would have been lost to us forever."

Sol's eyes grew double their normal size. "We have to do something," he said with a tone of desperation in his voice. "Make her understand who he really is… I won't sit back and watch him behave like this!"

"I know I know…" Andromeda replied. "But I don't know what to do."

"Talk to her," said Sol. "I'll talk to Sirius." He sighed. 'Its all we can do."

* * *

Kathleen was lying on her bed in her cell when she heard a knock at the door. 

"Whoever you are, go away!" she called.

"Can't we talk for a bit?" came a voice through the door. It was a female voice. Kathleen realized it must be the pink angel she had seen in the hallway, the one that had rescued Sirius from the blackness.

"No. You saved the monster."

"He's not a monster!" the angel replied, her voice rising.

"Then what else is he? My life's been nothing but mess since he killed Leo! You're an angel! You're life in this… this place must be perfect! Imagine this. You're a child, living with a family who could care less if you were alive or dead. The one speck of light you have is your dog, who you love more than anything besides your father. Suddenly you find out that your father is dead. He's been shot to death!" Her voice rose passionately. "And then the only thing keeping you going, the dog, is murdered by some demon posing as an angel on the same day! Suddenly nothing in life seems to ever turn out right. Your guardian dies on your seventeenth birthday. You contract cancer, and your husband is cheating on you with some nurse! And then, when you're ready to pick up the pieces of your life and start over again, oh no. You can't because you have terminal cancer and you're going to die in six months. Heaven is your only way out, and you can't even have your final peace because the same monster that ruined your life decided to torture you more!" Tears were flowing down her cheeks now. "No _angel_, we have nothing to talk about. You have lived a life a delightful perfection, while I have withered and died a simple mortal on a tiny planet."

Andromeda had sunk against the door. Her heart went out to Kathleen, but she had it all wrong.

"I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune," she said. "Sirius was not the crux of your problems, and no one, not even us Celestials, have perfect lives." Kathleen gave a small laugh of disbelief.

"It's true. I… have a friend who watched someone they loved suffer for a long time, and they weren't even aware they were suffering. When my friend finally got up the courage to help the one they loved, it seemed to be to late." Andromeda picked her head up. "But by a miracle, my friend has been given a second chance, and she better not screw it up again." She sighed. "The one you call a monster has had his share of misfortune as well."

"Monsters are heartless. They don't know misfortune," scoffed Kathleen.

"Then Sirius is not a monster, because he has a great heart. After he left you he tried as hard as he could to make your life better. But everyway he turned something worse happened to you. Do you understand how you upset him when you told him you hated him? Can you fathom the hurt he has endured?"

"I… I don't believe it!" yelled Kathleen. "You're just lying to me now! I don't even know why I'm here! No one explained anything to me, no one asked me if I wanted to come here!"

"Sirius would explain if you asked him!"

"I will not talk to a demon!" Andromeda got up and walked away. She had been beat.

Kathleen waited a few minuets for a retort. When none came she went over to the door.

"Hello?" she asked. There was no reply. Kathleen went to lie on the bed. She wondered what the angel's name was.

* * *

Polaris looked at the letter questioningly. He hoped it wasn't true, yet he had a job to do. He flew out toward Sirius' galaxy. He found Sirius' sphere, and quickly analyzed it. Three celestials, and one… Earth Being. Polaris felt like he had been punched in the stomach. 

"Sirius… Sirius what have you done?"

* * *

Wow, its been a while hasn't it? I'm sorry everyone for the delay. School suddenly decided to dump everything on me in the space of a month, for example, the day after I handed in a 80 page paper, I was handed another essay to do for the same class. Fear not though. I won't abandon this story until its done. 

Radioactive Bubblegum: Of course there is more, there will be (hopefully) much more. I just hope you like the rest of it .;

ChandraSinger: I too, enjoy tragedy. Death scenes are among my favorite things to write wink As for the fluff, I'm not sure where I'm going with it, but I think there will be. I just have to see where the story wants to go…

Shebly: Thanks for the support! Unfortunately once midterms are over me teachers believe its time to immediately get ready for finals.

Honeyblank: And carry on I shall!

Wingednails: The sequel? O.o? Thank you very much!

DragonWatcher: I'm glad you like it so much! All questions will be answered in due time (how long that time is I don't really know…) I am very sorry for all the delays!


	5. Wild Horses I

I watched you suffer a dull aching pain. Now you've decided to show me the same. No sweeping exist or offstage lines could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind. Wild horses couldn't drag me away. Wild, wild horses couldn't drag me away. –Wild Horses, The Rolling Stones

* * *

"What can I do Sol? She hates me with all her heart!" Sirius laid his head on the table. "It wasn't supposed to end up this way…" He sighed.

Sol didn't like this one bit. "Look, Sirius," he began slowly. "I can send her back." Sirius picked up his head. "I can send her back again when I have enough strength, and that won't be for another year."

"She'll be happy she can go back," said Sirius with the faintest smile on his face. "She can go back to the people that she knows and loves. It's what she wants." Sol shook his head.

"What about what you want Sirius?"

"That doesn't matter to me."

Just then Andromeda entered.

"Nothing," she said sadly. The girl will not be moved.

"That's alright," said Sirius. "She can go back home in a year." He stood up. "It's been a very strange day," said Sirius. "And I know you both have your own matters to attend to."

"I am sorry Sirius," said Andromeda as she turned to leave. "But please… don't try to get lost again." Sirius nodded, and Andromeda left.

"I'll come over tomorrow to see how things are going," said Sol, and he to, left.

Sirius stared off into space. Never before in all his years of living had he felt so incredibly alone.

* * *

For two weeks Kathleen remained in her room. Meals appeared outside her door for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She heard footsteps above her, sometimes the light footsteps she learned were the pink angel's, the heavier footsteps of the orange creature, and the heavy, plodding footsteps of the monster. No one came to speak to her again.

On the fifteenth day of her imprisonment she opened her door a crack. Seeing no one in her hallway, she began running down the corridors, searching for the spiral staircase that led to the clear room. She rounded a corner, and then stopped dead.

The staircase was there, and sitting four steps up from the bottom was the monster. His wings hung limp at his sides and he held his head in his hands.

Kathleen stared. The monster looked so… so human. He turned his face up toward the ceiling, and she saw what could be taken for a light green tear on his cheek. Like the time she saw him falling, a heartstring deep in her heart pulled.

"Sirius!" came a shout from somewhere outside the sphere. It was a new voice that Kathleen had never heard before.

"Sirius get out here this instant!"

Kathleen watched Sirius sink through the floor. As he did she began running for the stairs. She sprinted up them as fast as she could, and when she got to the top she burst through the big door. Outside, Sirius stood facing a light blue single-winged angel and about twenty dark blue angels with wings so small they looked almost like part of their long hair. The light blue one seemed to be arguing with Sirius about something, but she couldn't hear what.

"I wish I knew what they were saying," she muttered. The sphere suddenly opened a tiny bit, and she heard everything.

""What you're doing is against ever law in the book!" cried the light blue angel.

"I won't let you!" shouted Sirius. "Now go away Rigel. This is not your territory. Why isn't Polaris here?"

"That coward didn't want to face you! Now step aside Sirius. We will take her by force if you will not hand her over."

"Nothing happens to her here as long as I still live," said Sirius defiantly. There was a silence, giving Kathleen time to think. Were the blue angels here to rescue her from the monster? Polaris? Rigel? They were the names of stars.

"Step aside," said Rigel in a calmer tone. "No mortal can see this place and live. We have to take her, she has to be… exterminated."

Kathleen felt her gut clench. They had come to kill her? But surely the monster would let them, wouldn't he? It was what he intended to do… right?

Sirius spread his wings to their full extent and suddenly blazed green fire. "I have told you. You shall not harm her while I live. To get her you'll have to come through me." His eyes blazed green and the fire around him shot up several feet in all directions. The dark blue angels hung back.

"Well you heard him!" cried the light blue angel. "Get him!" Slowly at first, then will full force, the twenty light blue angels attacked Sirius. Swords materialized in their hands and they lunged at him. Sirius began shooting fireballs as a spear appeared in his right hand and a shield in his left. His loose shirt changed to a shimmering breastplate laid with intricate patters and symbols and his hands were covered in gauntlets that matched the breastplate. The fireballs sent his attackers flying across space and his spear hit them in their arms and legs with deadly accuracy.

Arms and legs? Kathleen looked closer. Sirius was winning, no doubt, but she hadn't seen him strike a deadly blow to even one of them. An angel flew at his heart, he bashed it with his shield and turned to fend off another attacking his right side. Suddenly Kathleen saw that the light blue angel had disappeared.

* * *

Sirius imbedded his spear in another Initomi, and whipped his head around and slammed his shield into another. One came swinging at his head with its short sword; he ducked, flipped around, and kicked the Initomi in its side. His eyes bounced back and forth, watching and waiting for another attack. Three Initomi attacked him simultaneously from his front and two sides. He pulled his wings up and shot downward as their swords cut only air. A brilliant green fireball exploded from Sirius' hand and hit all three Initomi, blowing each of them at least fifty yards away.

* * *

As Kathleen watched him fight them off, she remembered something from her childhood. Leo, fighting off the bullies for her. Didn't Sirius have the same look in his eye…

"NO!" she shouted at herself. "What are you thinking? He is a monster! I hope they kill him!"

"But…then who will save me?"

* * *

He stared up at the Initomi. Out of the twenty that had come, only seven were in any condition to fight, and they hung back and stared at each other questioningly, as if daring each other to try their luck at apprehending Sirius again. Sirius smirked.

"Nothing is happening to her while I'm around," he repeated. "And anyone who wants to say otherwise is going to have to deal with me." The Initomi drifted even further away from his glowing green from.

"SIRIUS LOOK OUT!" Kathleen gasped at what she had just said and put both hands on her mouth to clamp it shut as Rigel appeared from behind Sirius with a short sword of his own. Sirius turned, but not before Rigel plunged the sword six inches deep into Sirius shoulder muscle, the only part of his back the plate did not cover.

Sirius' eyes bugged for a moment. Thick, dark green ooze began to pour from the wound. The fire around him slightly dimmed and he turned to Rigel with hateful eyes.

"So the rumors aren't true," scoffed Rigel. "The great luminaries do bleed."

Suddenly Sirius whirled around and crushed Rigel's ribcage with the side of his shield. The Initomi, seeing Sirius wounded, advanced slightly. Sirius turned his burning gaze upon them and they instantly shrank back. He drew himself up to his full height and the fire that had dimmed burned brighter.

"Go away," said Sirius, with calm, finite tone in his voice. "Go away and don't come back. Ever." The Initomi turned to each other and reached an agreement with their eyes. They went to Rigel, slung his arm over one of their shoulders, and flew away as fast as their injuries would allow.

Sirius glared after them. The shield and spear disappeared, the green fire around him returned to its normal glow. He reached up his left hand and, setting his face, pulled out the sword embedded in his shoulder. The thick green ooze increased threefold, but the only sign that he was in pain was a light green perspiration on his forehead.

One the Initomi were out of sight, he turned his face on them and floated toward his sphere.

He stepped inside the clear room and continued out the big door, not even noticing Kathleen agape expression. He crossed the hall into the smaller door that unlocked and opened itself as he approached it and closed behind him. Kathleen followed and put her ear to the door.

"Zoi…" she heard him mutter. "Where is the… Oh, here." She saw a dim flash of white light in the crack below the door. Seconds later the door opened itself again and she found herself face to face with Sirius.

He seemed to be just as surprised as she was. They froze for a second, staring at each other.

Kathleen shook her head and turned her back on him. Sirius' shouldersvisibly heaved and watched her retreating back as she went down the stairs.

Kathleen entered her room and laid down on her bed. She gazed up at the ceiling, wondering why she hadn't noticed the sparkles in the ceiling before.

To all appearances, Sirius had just saved her life.

He had fought off twenty one angels for her and been seriously injured in the process.

"It could all just be a trick," said the cynical side of her self. "A trick to make you think he saved your life. It's a torture device, its brainwashing!" But the other side, the side that had seen something of Leo in Sirius' fighting movements, wondered…

* * *

Two days later, Sirius opened the big door to his observatory deck and peered inside. Kathleen stood there with her back to the door and her hands pressed up against the window, staring out into space. Her body was silhouetted against the universe, which looked unusually bright today.

Sirius, about to softly close the door walk away, suddenly walked up to Kathleen and stood next to her. He saw her eyes darting back and forth across the scene and realized she was watching the many luminaries out in space. He could hear the buzzing from all the way inside his sphere. Once again he was the subject of all the heavens to gossip about. He was surprised that Sol or Andromeda hadn't come over in the last two days.

Funny. He had only really met her that day, and yet he already considered her a friend. He still didn't know why Andromeda had been there to stop him, but he was grateful she had been. Andromeda…

Kathleen didn't hear the door open. She only became aware of his presence when he came and stood next to her. Though her first instinct was to move away, she stayed in her place and continued to watch the angels dart back and forth across the sky.

"Tell me about them," she said suddenly. Sirius immediately snapped out of his thoughts.

"What?" he asked, half disbelieving he had heard anything at all.

"T-tell me about them," she repeated quietly. "Tell me about the angels."

Sirius, for the first time in almost three weeks, smiled.

"They're not angels," he began as they both stared out the window. "We're called Luminaries…


	6. Drifter's Escape

My trip hasn't been a pleasant one, and my time isn't long, and I still do not know what it was that I've done wrong – Drifter's Escape, Jimi Hendrix

* * *

She was sitting on the stone bench again, looking out at the sunset. The man with the dark eyes was sitting next to her, and he was talking. 

"So, how do you like it? Didn't I tell you you had a special task?"

"It is strange. I don't really understand what's going on at all."

"That's because you won't listen to him. He would tell you everything if you just asked him."

"But… I'm still so confused. That night… I remember hardly anything at all, except for Leo dying and Sirius appearing. I know I'm missing something and I have no idea what it is."

"You just need more time up here is all. You've been here for what, two months now?"

"Yes."

"What has changed?"

"In the beginning… oh I hated him! I hated him for what… what he did."

"And that was?"

"Killing Leo. But as everything got stranger and stranger, I began to doubt my hatred, which just left me more confused."

"What aren't you confused about?"

"I know where we are now. This is space, the universe. Stars and planets and other celestial object are living beings, luminaries. Sirius is the ruler, I guess, of the Milky Way, but here it's called the Sirius Denizen. Sirius' friend Sol is the sun on Earth, and Andromeda is the ruler of the Andromeda galaxy. But that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge."

"Are you happy here?"

Kathleen shrugged. "I don't really know. I'm not miserable, if that's what you mean, but I'm not jumping for joy either."

"Why aren't you happy?"

"Because I don't understand any of this. I don't understand why I was brought here, I don't understand… I don't understand Sirius."

"Sirius is a hard person to know. I'm not sure anyone in the universe truly knows him. But ask him why he brought you here. He will tell you, because he cannot refuse you anything."

Kathleen thought for a moment about his last comment.

"When he brought me here I hated him. Now I still don't like him, but I don't hate him either. He fought twenty-one angels for me, and… I see something of Leo in him. But I don't know if that's just because I miss my dog or not."

The man smiled. "You need more time to sort things out. Perhaps one day you will surpass all luminaries and actually understand Sirius. But for now, at least you understand a little. You are on complete speaking terms now?"

"I guess so. We don't talk because we really have nothing to talk about. The most talking we ever did was the day he explained the universe to me."

"And what about with his friends? Sol, Andromeda? Do you talk to them?"

"No. Except for that first day I have never talked to them. I'm a bit… embarrassed actually, to talk to them. I was so mean to them at first, especially Andromeda."

"You were under a lot of stress that first day. I don't think they'll hold it against you."

Kathleen looked at him a second time.

"Why are you asking me all these questions? It's like you're a parent concerned for the welfare of their child! I don't even know you!" The man smiled.

"I have to go now, and you have to wake up. Think about what I said." The sunset turned dark, then light, and Kathleen realized she was staring at her ceiling, and someone in the sphere above was shouting.

* * *

"Rigel was completely out of line. I've removed him temporarily as a captain of the Initomi for now. Attacking Sirius was terribly bad judgment." Alpha shook his head, than continued. "I don't know what possessed him to do it in the first place." 

"He panicked," said Polaris simply. "Rigel is someone who needs his orders to be followed immediately or he goes crazy."

"I'm just wondering how Sirius got her up there. I'm sure there's at least one other hand at work here."

"I'm not ready to look into this further Alpha," said Polaris sharply. "Sirius was changed from his time down on Earth, and I hope we con find someway to come to an agreement with him, and only him. I don't want anyone else involved. It just gets to messy. It's why I've ignored this for so long. I just don't want to deal with... him."

"What kind of an agreement?"

"I don't know. Perhaps if he hands over the girl he never needs to have another Companion. Something like that."

"You really think he's going to go for that?"

Polaris sighed heavily.

"Not in one million eons."

* * *

"Only a little more time love, then the plan will be ready." 

"I do so love surprises, don't you?"

"Ah yes. Imagine the surprise Sirius will have!"

"How much longer before it is done?"

"Maybe a few more weeks at most."

"I want everything to be perfect. Take as long as is reasonable before you tell me it's done."

"Of course my darling."

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE OUTSIDE? HOW DARE THEY EVEN COME NEAR THIS PLACE!" Sirius was raging. Sol and Andromeda had just had to fight their way into his sphere. Apparently fifty Initomi, under leadership of Rigel, had surrounded his sphere. 

"Are you two alright?" asked Sirius, anger seeping into every word.

Sol rolled his shoulder. "We're fine, just a little shaken up. What is Rigel thinking?"

"He's not even part of the Initomi right now," said Andromeda. Sirius and Sol looked at her questioningly. "Alpha removed him from duty. He has no jurisdiction at all."

"What's going on?" said Kathleen as she entered the room and sat down. Sol and Andromeda glanced at Sirius, waiting for him to give the explanation.

"It's the Initomi," he said, the anger replaced by annoyance. "They've surrounded the sphere." Kathleen's eyebrows shot up.

"What are we going to do?" she asked.

"Figure out a plan I suppose," said Sol gruffly.

"I don't think we have to," said Andromeda. "Listen."

They heard a commotion outside. Several voices were all screaming at once.

"QUIET!" shouted someone.

"That's Polaris…" muttered Sirius. The three luminaries looked at each other, then Sirius motioned to the sphere and the wall parted to reveal the scene unfolding outside.

Polaris and Alpha were staring down Rigel, who seemed to be cowering under their gaze.

"But, Effulgency," began Rigel.

"But nothing!" said Alpha loudly. "I relieved you of your duties! You have no jurisdiction here!" Rigel shuddered as if he had been struck.

"Very well," he said, and then flew off hastily. The Initomi dispersed and Alpha and Polaris entered Sirius's sphere. They glanced around, noting the presence of Andromeda, Sol, and Kathleen, then turned to Sirius.

"We have a proposition for you," said Alpha. "Perhaps you would like them to leave the room?" He motioned to the three others. Sirius stared down at Alpha defiantly.

"They don't have to leave because you will say nothing. I will not turn her over to you for anything."

* * *

Oh it was a short one and nothing really happened... sorry everybody! More important stuff happenes in the next chapter, I promise!

The story has skipped over a few months because even less would happen. In those two months Kathleen and Sirius have probably had very few conversations. Polaris and Alpha have been unwilling to deal with Sirius until now because they are somewhat afraid of him still. As for Rigel... thats a tale for another time

RoseBlack- In all seriousness, my story confuses me sometimes as well. But I have most of it mapped out in my head, and several of the things you are confused about will be answered later on. As for the part about luminarieshuman form and bodies, I inferred from the book that they did. When Sirius first saw Sol as a dog I thought the book mentioned something about Sol having a form not unlike a human, I figured that because they had wings they had human like bodies. Also in the beginning of the book they mentioned something about trees and fruit, so I figured that Luminaries ate. It's really just my interpretation of DWJ's writing. I could be completely off base! Thank you for the plot compliment! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

Radioactive Bubblegum: The updates should be coming more frequently now, but don't hold me to it. School likes to pile work on top of me at a moments notice. As for your other questions… you'll see…


	7. First Blood

Polaris flinched. Alpha did nothing.

"B-b-but S-S-Sirius…" began Polaris, the stammer he had managed to get rid of suddenly coming back in his nervousness. "She has s-seen…"

"No," said Sirius again. Andromeda's burning pink gaze flashed in Polaris' direction.

"You must be joking if you think that we could have remained up here by ourselves forever," she said.

"We could have!" cried Alpha. "If it wasn't for this, this insanity!"

"Don't I get a say in any of this?" All eyes turned toward Kathleen. "I am in the room and I can think you know. I don't fancy the idea of being 'exterminated' as you so politely put it," said Kathleen coolly.

Polaris blinked a few times. It seemed he hadn't taken into account that Kathleen was, in fact, a thinking being."

"Kathleen is technically still one of my subjects," said Sol. We already have a plan to send her back to where she came from."

"She can't go back!" yelled Alpha. "She's already seen too much!"

Sirius opened his mouth to reply, when suddenly there was a great crashing from outside.

"What in the…" began Sol. Sirius opened the sphere. When everyone realized what it was thatthey were looking at, they gasped.

It was a monster. As tall as four of Sirius and as wide as half his gigantic sphere, it was a behemoth of a thing. It reminded Kathleen of a cat mutated almost beyond recognition. It had a cat like face and body, with two sets of muscular arms that gave way to huge hand-like paws with claws as large and sharp as the blades of the Initomi. Burning red hair fell around its face, spikes of bone protruded out of its spine along with a set of double, bat wings, and it had a set of powerful hind legs meant for pouncing. Its teeth were as long as it's claws and looked twice as sharp, and a thick red liquid was dripping from its longest fangs.

"What the hell is that thing!" screamed Kathleen. Sirius walked up to the opening and squared his shoulders to the monster.

"It's Yhri," he replied calmly.

"Yhri's been sealed away since before Polaris was formed!" shouted Andromeda. "And that's LONG!" Polaris turned to her, scowling, but as he turned Yhri let out an ear-splitting cry and a flame came roaring out of his mouth. Kathleen hid her face behind her hands, as if that would do any good against the wave of fire about to hit her.

But the blast never came. Kathleen opened her eyes to see Sirius, Andromeda, and Sol standing at the opening of the sphere. Sirius had his spear, Andromeda had a long, curved sword, and Sol had a something like a spear, but instead of a sword-like point, it had a long blade that was curled slightly perpendicular to the shaft of the weapon. Each were using their weapons to block the raging ball of fire. With a grunt, they flung the fire back toward Yhri, who deflected it down with a swipe of his claws.

Simultaneously all three rose and began attacking. Sirius fought as he had before, Sol circled and dipped around thrashing claws and Andromeda's attack was almost like a dance. Each time they struck Yhri's flesh it emitted a dull red light.

"Feel free to join in at any time," shouted Sol to Polaris and Alpha as he sliced one of Yhri's claws off.

Polaris and Alpha, looking at each other in embarrassment for a moment, suddenly jumped into the air, weapons appearing in their hands. Alpha spun two daggers on his fingers and began to throw them into the throat of the Yhri, causing bright red sparks to flash quickly, like some sort of sick, macabre celebration. Alpha kept forming daggers and hurling them into Yhri at various points. Polaris fought with some sort of battle axe that looked quiet clumsy, but Polaris proved he could wield it well as he cut deep into one of Yhri's wings, almost hacking it off.

As Kathleen watched the fight, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was a pure white mist. Entranced by the mist, she took a step toward it. Eyes appeared in the mist, beckoning her to come. She stood on the edge of the sphere about to step off, to be near the mist.

"AH!" Kathleen yelled and backed away from the edge of the sphere. The thick red liquid from Yhri's teeth had somehow landed on the palm of her hand and was burning the skin. She quickly wiped her hand on the wall of the sphere, where it was absorbed into the green substance. The palm of her hand now bore a deep red round burn on it.

Kathleen looked back to where the mist had been. It was gone, and Kathleen turned back to the fight.

As Andromeda and Sol occupied its two sets of arms, Sirius flew underneath Yhri and sunk his spear deep into Yhri's belly. Yhri let out an agonized cry as the red liquid that dripped from its teeth suddenly rushed out of his mouth in a torrent. Sirius pulled his spear along the length of Yhri's body, causing the dull red flashes to become a dull, pulsating light. Polaris finished the job on one of its wings and the cut wing burst into glittering dust as it flew off into space. Alpha nailed Yhri in one of its six eyes, and when it flung a clawed hand up to its eye Yhri cut itself with its own claws.

Getting dangerously close to its gnashing teeth and sharp backbones, Sol flew up near the head, circling around it to avoid the flames. Sol saw an opening, and plunged his scythe into the back of Yhri's throat, cutting down and around. Andromeda joined in on the other side, her katana slicing through whatever Yhri was made of like a knife through butter. Yhri let out a final screech that ended in gurgling, and then began to fall, fast and hard, like he was being pulled, down through the universe. The five luminaries watched it fall for a moment before slowly heading back into the sphere, shaking their heads in confusion.

"Yhri's been sealed for ages!" said Sol landing back inside the sphere. He threw his scythe in the air and it disappeared. "Why would it come back now?"

Sirius landed beside him, his spear and shield already gone. "You're asking me like I know the answer."

"Can someone please explain to me WHAT that thing was?" asked Kathleen.

"Yhri is a… celestial monster so to speak," replied Andromeda. "He is a creature from a long, long time ago, before any of us were formed. It was toward the beginning of our universe. A hundred monsters like Yhri roamed the universe, preying on young luminaries and the larger ones eating whole spheres. The luminaries lived in fear and fled whenever the monsters came near."

"Why didn't the young luminaries just fight them like you all just did?"

"Because back then luminaries were no more than the human equivalent to children," said Sol. "They looked like we did but had not the mind or the strength that we do now. His scythe reappeared and disappeared. "And they hadn't the slightest clue about their weapons."

"Until the triple wings appeared," continued Alpha. "One day two luminaries with three sets of wings appeared. She was silver and He was gold. They were wiser and stronger than any of us here now. They taught the young luminaries much about the universe and about themselves. They easily fended off the monsters, but each one they killed was mysteriously replaced in short time. One day, She was fighting a monster alone, and somehow discovered a way to seal every single monster inside of Unknown space. So that day, all the monsters disappeared, but She gave herself up to Unknown space in locking the monsters away. No one has seen her since."

"You've probably seen Him around though," said Sirius. "He's the only luminary out there with three sets of wings. He won't talk to anyone though. He hasn't spoken a word since She disappeared."

"So why has Yhri shown up after all this time?"

Sirius, Andromeda, Alpha, and Sol all looked at each other in confusion, then to Polaris, wondering if he had the answer.

"Don't ask me!" Polaris cried. "I'm as lost as all of you."

"Listen," said Andromeda. All grew silent. Straining their ears, they could make out the roars of another monster, and the shouts of luminaries.

"There are more?" said Polaris in alarm. "We'll deal with this situation later Sirius," he said, indicating Kathleen. Then he and Alpha flew off in the direction of the roars and shouts.

"Sirius I have to get back to my sphere," said Andromeda worriedly.

"As do I," added Sol.

"Send word is you need help," said Sirius, nodding.

"Same to you," they replied, and flew away.


	8. Garden of Serenity

Meet me in the graveyard. We'll walk among the dead on a midnight odyssey riding in my head in the garden of serenity – Garden of Serenity, The Ramones

* * *

"You're hurt," said Sirius, turning around and seeing Kathleen's burned hand.

"It's nothing, really," she said.

"Wait here," he said and left the room. She sat down again, flexing her fingers every now and then to make sure it was just a burn and not some form of contact poison.

"Back," announced Sirius. He was carrying some sort of object. It looked like a long dagger, purple in color. Somewhere in her mind she had seen something like it before.

"Give me your hand," said Sirius. Hesitantly at first, Kathleen placed her hand palm up into Sirius'. His hand felt very warm and though it was stationary, seemed to move underneath her own, as if he was made of nothing but green fire. She realized that this was the first time she had actually come in contact with him.

Sirius placed the dagger in her wounded hand. There was a flash of bright light that blinded her, it went out in all directions and then seemed to be sucked back into the dagger as quickly as it had come. She pulled her hand away and saw that the skin was as good as new.

"What is that?" she asked Sirius as he turned to put the dagger back in his room.

"It's a Zoi," he replied simply. "It's pure celestial magic." Then he left her, hoping she would be satisfied with the brief explanation.

There were more attacks throughout the week. More monsters roamed the universe, but no more came near the green sphere. Polaris came back twice, once alone and the second time with Alpha, and each time Sirius raged that he would not give up Kathleen for anything.

Kathleen spent most of her time either in the observatory room or in the garden. The garden was a beautiful place. Strange flowers with petals of all colors grew all over, pure black and pure white roses grew off the same vines that climbed everywhere. Exotic trees that looked like weeping willows but bore what looked like purple oranges were abundant along with oaks that gave silver apples. A small pond of some kind of blue liquid shimmered in a corner. The smell was what she liked most.

The everywhere else in the sphere smelled the same. She couldn't place the smell, but it was all the same nonetheless, except for the garden. The garden smelled how gardens should smell. The mixed scents of the different flowers combined with the sweet smell of decaying leaves, dirt, and everything else a garden should smell like. Sometimes she walked there with no shoes, and felt the life of the garden pulsating up through her feet. But still, under all the good smells, was that same smell that was everywhere in the sphere.

Kathleen would sit on a small bench that reminded her of the bench that she had died on. She did most of her thinking here. She had never even once seen Sirius in the garden, it was by pure dumb luck that she had found it herself on one of her explorations of the sphere.

And that was where she sat now, listening to Sirius shouting at Polaris to get out, though she couldn't hear distinctly what was said. Polaris must have given in, because Sirius stopped shouting and she heard no more muffled stuttering.

She still wondered what would become of her. Sirius seemed completely set in not letting anyone harm her or take her away, yet he was willing to let her go home if she wanted to. He obviously wasn't the monster that she had painted him to be, but if not, than what was he? She had learned only hatred of him. Now she didn't know what to think.

"I hate this place."

Kathleen jumped. Sirius was standing down the path, leaning over the flowers and leering at them.

"If you hate it so much than why are you here?" she asked.

Sirius shrugged.

"Why didn't you just get rid of it years ago?" she asked again.

"Memories," he replied distantly.

Kathleen decided to delve further. "What memories?"

Sirius shook his head. "Something bad happened here seventeen years ago."

"If it's something bad then why do you want to remember it?"

"Because it is crucial that I remember it, that I never forget what it was she did."

"Who?" said Kathleen prodding further. Sirius had wandered over to the bench by now, and was staring at her with his piercing, burning green eyes.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked, doubting she would.

Kathleen thought a moment. She wanted to know more about him. Maybe then she could know what to think about him.

"Yes."

Sirius' eyes grew wide in surprise. He sat down next to Kathleen on the bench and stared ahead at the black and white rose vine that was creeping up the corner of the garden.

"As long as I can remember I have had a Companion. The white, empty sphere just outside this one used to belong to her. My Companion was a small little thing, burning a brilliant white. I used to think she was the most beautiful thing that had ever and would ever exist. She was my world. I was devoted to her because I thought… I thought she loved me as much as I did her. But I didn't see it. I didn't see what she truly was.

"It was around eighteen years ago that it began. She would leave me for days at a time to go gallivanting off with a blue luminary from the Castor complex. I lied to myself even then. I told myself she was off spreading my expertise in the ruling of his sphere.

"One day a young luminary who had only been around for ten thousand years or so began gossiping near my sphere. Telling everyone around what was really going on between those two. I didn't mind it so at first. It was just some young, stupid luminary trying to get on my nerves. But as the months went by I began to doubt the lies I told myself. Instead of finding out for myself what was going on can you guess what I did?" Here Sirius let out a bitter laugh. "I punched him in the face. I hit him because I told myself that he was spreading lies about my _beloved_ Companion." He spat out the word. "The luminary ran away and I left my sphere and wandered for a few hours, for once questioning what I had done.

"I came down here when I came home. She was sitting on this bench, clutching something when I walked in. She jumped and looked up at me with wide, fearful eyes. Looking down I saw why. At her feet was the luminary, stone dead. His color, he burned orange, his color was dull and lifeless. His wings were twisted at odd angles. His face was full of shock and his eyes were nothing but pale white spheres. As I walked closer I saw she was holding the Zoi.

"You would think I would see her for what she truly was now. But no. I was upset that it had happened, she had shattered his sphere as well, but I gently told her it had been an accident. She looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back. Then she pointed the Zoi at me. She tried to kill me, but she didn't know what she was doing. She only stunned me.

"I lied in a daze for half a day. The blue luminary came to me and fed me all the lies that were needed to convict me and I believed all of them. At the time it didn't even cross my mind that she had tried to hurt me. When I was arrested my thoughts were on not upsetting her to much. I was here when they arrested me too.

"And that is why I will not destroy this garden. I must remember what she did to me, I must remember what she really was. I must never think of her fondly even for a second. Nothing but hatred can be in my heart for that small pearly luminary.

"And now to answer your first question. I am here because after I threw Polaris out I was reminded of the amusing way in which my Companion used to describe Polaris. I caught myself smiling, and came down here to fill my heart with poison."

Kathleen was silent for a while. Months ago she would have called everything he said a lie. She would have screamed at him and left.

But now she did not. Because Sirius was now the only one that she completely trusted. He was now the only one she could rely on. She had been startled by the drama in his voice and could only take what he said as the complete and utter truth.

"I'm sorry Sirius," was all she could say. Sirius shrugged again.

"Don't be," he replied nonchalantly. "It's not like it's your fault or anything like that."

"No…" she said. "I'm sorry for… for everything." Neither of them said anything for a little while. Suddenly Kathleen put her arms around Sirius and hugged him tightly. Sirius was taken aback and before he could do anything Kathleen let go and practically jumped off the bench and half walked half ran out of the garden.


	9. Light Inside

The light inside is burning bright. The light inside makes everything alright. –Light Inside, Aerosmith

* * *

Kathleen walked as quickly as she could without actually running. She turned down random hallways and corridors, turning over in her mind what Sirius had said to her. Almost all doubt had been expelled. Whatever he was, Sirius was not a monster. In fact as far as she could remember ever since he had brought her to this world he had protected and taken care of her. She knew something about that night all those years ago was missing. She remembered everything except the important part. The part that told her who Sirius really was.

Her thoughts led to other beings. Sol, Andromeda, Polaris, Alpha, and this new being, this Companion. She thought of the man with the scar, who met her in dreams and carried her outside the day she died. What lay ahead of her for the next few months until she could go home? What did everyone have to do with it?

* * *

Sirius stared after Kathleen a long while. The woman who had hated him, screamed at him, told him that she was the cause of all his problems had stunned him. She had given him a sign of affection. Sirius was violently reminded of a younger, stronger, happier Kathleen. And he knew, somewhere, she was still alive.

Sirius got up off the stone bench and began to walk down one of the winding garden paths. He stooped down to smell the white and black roses that grew in a clump by the side of the path. He stared at blue lavender flowers as if he had never seen them before. And with each step he took he noticed the poison in his heart gently ebbing away. With each step he found he hated his garden less and less.

* * *

Kathleen awoke with a start. She looked wildly about trying to locate the source of her sudden consciousness when she heard another deafening crash.

She jumped up and took in her surroundings. Apparently she had fallen asleep in a couch in a distant room of the sphere. She heard pounding feet above her head and she rushed up the door and up the nearest flight of stairs to see what happened.

She swung into the doorway and it took several seconds to register what she was seeing.

The wall of the sphere was open and she saw what looked like explosions off in the distance. On the floor lay a small pink luminary whose fire seemed to be pulsing between light and dark. Sirius was standing over her, holding his Zoi.

"Sirius… you didn't!" gasped Kathleen. Sirius turned to her sharply.

"Of course I didn't!" he exclaimed. She saw his green fire had turned decidedly paler.

"Than what just happened! I heard a crash…"

"A… Andromeda…" whispered the small luminary. She picked herself up off the floor and Kathleen saw that half her face was covered with thick pink ooze. "She's in trouble… another monster…" The luminary fell back down to the floor, gasping for breath. Pink ooze quickly welled up around her. Sirius bent down to help her when she brushed him away.

"No… no time… help her…" The luminary's light burned brightly for one moment and in the next was gone completely.

It was as if someone had pulled the plug on a halogen light bulb. All the brightly burning fire was gone. Her long hair was dead and lifeless. Her burning pink eyes were dull and colorless. It occurred to Kathleen that this luminary was dead.

"S-Sirius?" said Kathleen.

Sirius turned back to her looking very serious.

"Kathleen," he began. "I have to help Andromeda. I don't have time to get Sol. I need you to go get him for me."

"What!" exclaimed Kathleen. "Sirius I don't have wings! I can't fly!"

"I know that. Take this-" he handed her the Zoi. "You can use it to run there. With the Zoi helping you it won't take but a few minutes."

"Sirius I can't breathe! And I don't even know how to use this thing!"

"Trust me, you can use it. You don't need air… Kathleen I really have to go!" Sirius looked desperate. His fire grew even paler.

"A-Alright…" whispered Kathleen. Sirius smiled at her.

"That's my girl. Tell Sol to bring the Zoi to me as quick as he can." Sirius jumped out into the universe.

"I'll explain everything later!" he shouted as he flew toward the explosions. Kathleen was left holding the Zoi with no idea how to use it.

* * *

The sphere was still open. Kathleen stepped around the dead luminary's body and looked out. Sol's sphere, her sun, looked so far away. There was no way she could make it in time to help Sirius, even if she did have wings. But something told her that if she didn't get Sol soon Sirius and Andromeda would suffer a fate akin to that of the luminary at her feet. She clutched the Zoi tighter in her hands, completely at a loss of what to do.

"I'd need to be faster than light to get there!" she cried aloud, almost in tears. She glanced back and forth between the explosions and Sol's sphere, hoping to find the answer somewhere in the stars.

As she gazed back and forth she noticed the Zoi growing warmer in her hands. Confused, she looked down as it began to shake violently in her hands. What she saw only confused her more. The Zoi was no longer a dagger.

The Zoi was longer, thinner. It had a long stem and small thorns on the sides. It was purple still, and the blossom at one end was half blown.

It had changed itself into a rose.

"'Trust me,' he said," she mumbled. Taking a deep breath, Kathleen closed her eyes and stepped out of the sphere.

* * *

Sirius flew through space as fast as he could, worry eating hungrily at his heart. He had left Kathleen alone. With a Zoi. Andromeda was in trouble, a luminary was dead. Kathleen might not use it properly… The explosions…

As he grew closer his fears were confirmed. The explosions were spheres being destroyed. And with every sphere that died, so did a luminary. Dozens were dead by now, all subjects of Andromeda. He only hoped he was not too late to stop her from meeting the same fate as her subjects. He saw a flash of gray scales.

He dodged past several pieces of a shattered sphere when he saw it, looming in front of him like a misplaced planet.

It was at least ten times larger than Yhri. It was a sphere eater, and it was after Andromeda.

With a cry Sirius charged, spear and shield forming as he raced toward it. A pink luminary swinging a curved sword was suddenly trapped in one of the monster's claws. His gut clenched and, unloading every once of speed he had in him, sprinted toward the claws that held her.

* * *

Andromeda had fought bravely, but her strength was waning. She didn't know if her messenger had made it to Sirius. She didn't know how many were left. Her whole body ached, and blood poured out of several wounds on her body. Her katana, usually so light and airy felt like lead in her arms. Her dance-like fighting had turned into stumbles and trips. Her Zoi, an orange, soft blanket, was wrapped around her middle. It had proved to be useless in fighting off the monster.

One of her attendants suddenly went flying past her screaming. Andromeda whirled around to see where she had gone went a clawed hand closed in around her. Andromeda panicked. She swung her sword again and again into the monster, chipping away at its hide but doing no real damage. The monster brought her even with his face. Its long tongue licked its lips in preparation for its new meal. She plunged the sword into a long clawed finger and twisted.

She could have sworn it was laughing.

* * *

Kathleen, cringing, slowly opened one eye. Her feet were touching solid ground and she was surrounded by a bright yellow-orange fire.

She was in Sol's sphere. Her hand felt a prick. She had caught herself on one of the thorns on the Zoi. She stuck the bleeding finger in her mouth and marveled for a moment as to how she had got there. Then she remembered why she was there.

"SOL!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Instantly she heard shouting and banging and within seconds Sol was standing in front of her.

"Something's attacking Andromeda!" she shouted. "You need to go help them now! Sirius already left…" Sol stared at her for a few seconds, then spread his wings in attempt to leave.

"Wait!" she called. "Take me with you."

"Why?" asked Sol, bewildered.

"Just do it!" Sol shrugged, grabbed her around the middle and took off.

* * *

Andromeda stared into the dead eyes of the monster defiantly. She pulled her sword out and plunged it in again, trying to cause it as much pain as she possibly could before it devoured her. Its fangs were far too long…

She heard a shout. Sirius, eyes blazing, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He flew right into the monsters face and drove his spear deep into one of its eyes. Dull yellow light began to pulse.

"LET HER GO!" screamed Sirius as he pulled out his spear and sunk in into another one of its eyes. "LET HER GO!" The monster hissed and scraped at the air in front of its face with another arm. Sirius easily dodged and went to hit another eye.

Andromeda suddenly felt the claws around her quickly loosen. The monster let go of everything it was holding and yanked all of its arms up towards Sirius. Sirius struck and weaved in between the dozens of arms. He sliced and hacked away and severed several clawed hands.

Then, all of a sudden, twenty arms dove for him at once from all different angles. Sirius, burning with rage, shot out a fireball that should have incinerated most of them.

Nothing happened.

One moment of shock was enough for the monster. It grabbed Sirius with five arms and held him in a vice-like grip. Sirius fought and thrashed but the arms held. A sixth and seventh helped to restrain him and an eighth, with longer claws than most began to glow over Sirius.

"NO!" shouted Andromeda. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Despite her wounds and shortness of breath she managed to fly up to its face, as Sirius had done and attacked its eyes. The monster swatted her away.

The eighth arm glowed brighter as it hovered over Sirius' face. It polluted his brilliant green with its sick yellow.

* * *

"No!" gasped Sol as he approached the scene. Kathleen meant to scream but felt her voice catch in her throat. The mist was there again.

The white mist hovered near the monsters head. The eyes in the mist beckoned to her…

"It's got Sirius!" shouted Sol angrily. Kathleen snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see what Sol meant.

Sirius was being held in seven arms by a silver cobra-like thing with arms like a centipede and what seemed like dozens of eyes. It was twice as big as Yhri and each eye looked dead. Several of them pulsated with light, and she knew they had been taken out by someone. Three sets of wings ran along its back and in maneuvered like a snake.

An eighth arm glowing a sickening yellow hovered over Sirius' head. Kathleen didn't want to see what it was going to do.

"SIRIUS!" she screamed. At the sound of her voice Sirius' struggles to escape increased tenfold. He got his spear arm free and sank his spear into the yellow glowing hand. Sol dipped near Andromeda's pink sphere and practically threw Kathleen into it as his scythe formed in one hand. He flew towards the hands holding Sirius and began to hack at them as more hands came from the monsters sides and tried to trap him as well.

"Let him go!" groaned Kathleen to herself as she watched the battle from the open sphere. "Damn it let him go!" The rose in her hands began to grow warm again. It shook a hundred times worse than it did the last time and the thorns were cutting her hands to ribbons. Everything stung, but still she held on. Blood began to drip on the pale pink floor and it welled up inside the half bloomed blossom.

A beam of white light shot out of the Zoi. Andromeda, getting up again after being swatted away wheeled around to see what was going on.

"IT WON'T WORK!" she shouted at Kathleen. "Zoi's don't hurt it!" Kathleen kept clinging to the rose as the white light surrounded the hands holding Sirius. The light immersed itself in the hands and pushed them away. Sirius sprang back into action, helping Sol and cutting everything within his spears reach. He didn't even have to.

The white light continued past the hands and up the arms. It swelled up into its head and doubled back on itself to travel down the length of its body. Soon the monster was glowing with white light. Andromeda smirked. It wasn't laughing anymore.

The monster, for a moment, looked confused and angry. A rumbling began. The white light ceased coming out of the rose and Kathleen fell to her knees on the floor, wiping her bloody hands on her shirt. She chanced one more look at the monsters face. The mist hovered near it. The eyes of the mist were wide and pleading. Then it was gone.

* * *

And so was the monster. Like all the spheres it had destroyed, the monster shattered. When Kathleen looked again, nothing was left but bits of glittering dust.

Sirius was pale. That yellow hand had gotten much to close for comfort. His spear and shield vanished and he was about to fly to Kathleen when he heard a groan somewhere below him. Andromeda.

"Did it get you?" he asked as he flew toward her.

"No," she replied sadly. "I'll be fine but… all my luminaries…" She stared at the mess of debris from shattered spheres and bit her lip. Bright pink tears appeared in her eyes.

"He got so many of them…" she whispered. Sirius came closer.

"I'm sorry Andromeda. I should have gotten here sooner! If I had…" Suddenly Andromeda turned and buried her face in Sirius' shirt. Sirius gently put his arms around her.

"Why is this happening Sirius?" she sobbed. "Why are they coming back? Why are they killing my luminaries!"

Sirius didn't have an answer for her.

* * *

Sol threw his scythe into the air and it disappeared. He drifted back to Andromeda's sphere, deep in thought about the whole mess they had gotten themselves into. He landed next to a bewildered Kathleen, who was still staring at the Zoi and wondering how she managed to pull off whatever it was she just did. He saw her hands were red with blood, obviously from the thorns on the Zoi.

Kathleen slowly picked up the Zoi again in her bloody hands. There was another bright flash of light and when it receded back in on itself Kathleen's hands were no longer a bloody mess. Sol did a double take.

"What did you just do?" he asked.

Kathleen shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "My hands hurt."

Sol's eyes grew wide. Impatiently he waited for Sirius and Andromeda to return to her sphere.

They came back within a few minutes, Andromeda's eyes still bright. Sol marched up to them with a look of confusion.

"Sirius… She just used that Zoi on herself," he stated. "Sirius, it's impossible to for any luminary to use a Zoi on themselves!" Andromeda turned to Sirius for an explanation. Sirius sighed.

"I know she can," he told them. "I've known for seventeen years she can."


	10. Moment of Truth

It's the moment of truth and it's finally come this time Now we must draw the line The moment of truth This time it's everything - Moment of Truth, Foreigner

* * *

Sol stared at him for a few seconds.

"Start making some sense Sirius."

Kathleen slowly handed the Zoi back to Sirius. Sirius took it from her and turned it over in his hands thoughtfully.

"I've told you about that night Sol. I told a bit about it to Andromeda. But I did leave out this part. I left it out because I wasn't sure of what I had seen. But this proves it now… I must refresh your memories first. It begins the night Leo died.

Kathleen, who had been staring at the floor suddenly snapped her head up. This was Sirius' retelling of the night she could only remember part of. Would he fill in the dim spaces? The spaces where she knew in her heart that memories were missing.

Sirius sighed. This would take some telling.

"The Master had given Kathleen the Zoi and asked her to use it on him. He no longer wished to be a dweller of the night. I was sure that it would kill her if she touched it, but it did not and its crackles of power seemed less. I thought it was the Master using his powers to protect her.

"The air was so confusing. Basil was screaming about meteorites, Kathleen saw me as a dog communicating with the Master and she was almost in tears that she could not. Then my Companion and my replacement showed up, which only added to Kathleen's air of confusion and anxiety. And the Master had everyone on edge.

"When the tears first began to well up in Kathleen's eyes I felt a small twinge of power from the Zoi. I thought nothing of it. I assumed it was my dog sense getting a true whiff of power from it.

"It first appeared that Kathleen used the Zoi to make my Companion and my replacement disappear. 'I'll see them dead first,' she said. And so they were gone.

"Then the Master wanted her to use it to make him human. She didn't think he should become human, because she said he muddled everyone and cheated them. He claimed it was only because he was in darkness. He came toward her, spreading his dimness onto her. Kathleen became frightened. 'Don't do that!' she yelled. I felt the Zoi work again, but I don't know what it did. But he backed away from Kathleen, and suddenly the whole place disappeared. The room, the Master, the dogs we had run with. All gone. I had not the faintest idea what had happened.

"We were all standing on the hillside again. Basil and Kathleen began arguing over the Zoi. It fell, I caught it in my teeth…" Sirius decided to leave out how painful the Zoi was. How it was the Zoi that had killed his dog body, which had separated him from Kathleen.

"But when Leo died… I was myself again. I could see people searching for us all over the hill. You-" he pointed at Kathleen. "You were kneeling over the body of Leo. But you could see me. You could talk to me, and I could talk to you. I tried to put myself back into the dog. But I could not. I… no luminary can use a Zoi on themselves. But you did."

Sol shook his head, his flaming orange hair seeming to radiate agitation. "I think I missed the part where she used it on herself Sirius," he said.

"Can creatures of Earth see you Sol?" Sirius asked plainly. Andromeda suddenly gave a small gasp.

"Of course they can't!" shouted Sol. "You know that! No children of Earth can-" Sol stopped. "No children of Earth can see… or talk to… You were in your full form… she adopted a human body…" Sirius stared at him, waiting. Sol nodded with understanding.

There was a sharp intake of breathe from the corner of the room. Three flaming heads turned to see a pale Kathleen staring at her feet.

"What's wrong?" asked Andromeda softly. She reached out to Kathleen to put a hand on her shoulder, but Kathleen quickly broke away from her and rushed out of the room.

"Sirius…?" said Sol, looking at the fiery green luminary questioningly.

"Maybe she wants to be left alone…" suggested Andromeda. Sirius shook his head.

"No, not this time."

* * *

He found her in a distant room of Andromeda's sphere, Andromeda's observatory deck. She was staring out into the universe, seeing a different view of it than she saw in his sphere. Her view was very much different from his, there were more colors, and it was brighter. But when he realized why it seemed that way, he felt sick. The reason it looked like there were more spheres, the reason it was brighter, was because of all the shattered pieces of Andromeda's beloved subjects. They still shone, but they soon would pulse with lights, and then go out completely.

"What's wrong Kathleen?" Sirius asked softly. She was silent. "Please tell me."

She bit her lip and continued to star out into space.

"You tell the story of what happened that night clearly. Detailed. The way you tell it… the way you remember it… I cannot help but think of it as the truth. But if it is…" She turned to him, and though she was not crying, he could see pain in her eyes. "If it is the truth why can't I remember! Why are there empty places in my mind? I thought you might jog my memory but I remember nothing of that night! Nothing except vague fragments that have nothing to do with the story you tell! I should be able to remember! There is no reason I shouldn't…" She drifted off. She couldn't say anymore.

"It's okay."

"What?" he said it so quickly she wasn't sure he had said anything at all.

"I said its okay," he said again, slower this time. "It's alright that you don't remember."

Kathleen stared at him for a few moments.

"Just as long as you know what happened."

What had happened? Sirius had been her dog. That's what had happened. And suddenly she realized what she had been doing to him since he brought her to this place, this star world. How much pain she had inflicted on him. How she had blamed him for everything bad that had ever happened to her. She felt her heart twist itself into several uncomfortable knots.

"Oh Sirius…" was all she managed. Then she emitted a soft sob and started to cry.

"It's alright," he said. "Everything is going to be alright." He held out his hand. "Come on. Let's go home."

She placed her small, shaking hand into his fiery green one.

* * *

Some time into the future, a moment in which Kathleen had no hope left, a moment in which she was even farther from anything she had ever known, a moment in which she was staring death in the face, she would look to this moment. And it would save her life.

* * *

I'm truly sorry everyone. I have made you wait far too long and this chapter was far too short. The effect of a 45+ hour workweek have not been very enjoyable. But I promise you all that I will finish the story. We are far from the end my friends, and have faith that I will never give up this story. – Yours faithfully, Windslayer.

* * *

I would like to thank the following people for their reviews and praise of this writer who is unworthy of all their words of kindness. Honeyblank, Anonymous-Cat, Chandra Tynan Synger, Tzaryn, AudTheBandNerd, Mia, Pragon, and Shopgirl.

I would also like to thank everyone else who reads this story; I truly hope you are finding it an enjoying experience.


	11. Sick and Tired

You turn the truth then you turn your back. You're a victim of yourself. the hate remains the hurting still exists, I'm so tired of it all-Sick and Tired – Black Sabbath

* * *

Sirius carried Kathleen back to his sphere. There was debris from what seemed to be thousands of destroyed spheres, creating a sick kaleidoscope of color against the black. Sirius grew sadder and sadder each time he had to dodge a piece of colored pulsating light. Once a piece brushed past him and he could feel the energy inside it withering away and dying.

"How do they die Sirius?" she asked. "How do an – luminaries. How do luminaries die?"

"There are really only two ways. A luminary will die instantly if their sphere is destroyed. They are connected. A luminary cannot exist without its sphere." Sirius grew silent for a moment.

"Then what's the other way?"

He took a deep breath. "The other way isn't as painless and sudden. A luminary can die if all their energy is drained out of them. What flows like blood on Earth is energy here. The more we lose the weaker we get, and when it's all gone, we die. The whole process is extremely painful and it can take years before a luminary's energy is completely gone."

"Then how did she kill that luminary in your garden? The young one?"

"Zoi's are movement. They can create and destroy. They can suck the energy out of something. That's what she did to him. She sucked the energy out of him and sucked the energy out of his sphere so it imploded."

"Oh…"

* * *

Almost the rest of the way back was silent. It was only when they were in view of the green sphere did Kathleen ask another question.

"Sirius, what did you mean back there when you said I used the Zoi on myself? I didn't understand what Sol and Andromeda understood."

This question was easier to answer. "The Master didn't grant you your wish. Maybe he felt bad about cheating you, or maybe he cheated you out of your wish in the first place. Either way, I knew it wasn't he who had let you understand me. Because when I needed the Zoi, when I needed to get it away from you, you couldn't understand me. You had asked the Master for the ability to be able to understand your dog. And you couldn't.

"But when Leo died and returned to my true form you could see me and understand me and answer me back. You could understand me, what I really was. That is how I know. You must have said to yourself 'I want to understand _him_.' Because you couldn't understand me while I was in my dog form. To understand me you would have had to have been able to see and hear and talk to luminaries, if only for a short while."

Kathleen nodded in understanding and they flew back into the sphere.

* * *

Over the next few days there were several more attacks from the monsters. Sirius was called by Alpha and Polaris three times to help take care of two luminary eaters and one sphere eater. Each time he left Kathleen stared out into the universe on the observatory deck. She bit her nails and waited with bated breath for Sirius to return. When she saw his green form finally appear she let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding and went down to meet him. She didn't touch the Zoi again, and noticed it had turned back into a dagger.

Sirius didn't like being away from Kathleen for so long. After each monster was killed he hurried back to his sphere as fast as he could and was relieved to find her still there.

This whole monster business was troubling him greatly, but he did not confess his uneasiness to her for fear of worrying her. Why should the monsters, after millions of years of confinement in Unknown Space suddenly surface? And Polaris and Alpha had called upon him about the most dangerous monsters that had appeared in the last few days. Where were they when the sphere eater attacked Andromeda's sphere? Surely the Initomi had been patrolling somewhere around her sphere that they could hear the terrible sounds of screaming and destruction. Why hadn't they come to help? Nothing made sense to Sirius and he made a decision not to help the next time he was called away.

But the next time it happened, he didn't have a choice.

* * *

"Kathleen!" he called. She came running down the stairs and was startled at the urgency in his voice. Sirius was standing with an orange luminary with small wings.

"Kathleen I have to go… It's Sol… another monster…" Kathleen felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. Not only did she like Sol and not want him to be hurt, but if anything happened to him than something would happen to Earth.

"What's wrong?" she said in a shaky voice.

"I'm not sure the extent of it, but I have to go, right now. Will you be okay here alone for a while?" Kathleen nodded. Sirius turned away from her and took off, taking the orange luminary with him. Sirius flew off toward Sol's sphere and the orange one went off in the direction of Andromeda's sphere.

Kathleen felt sick.

* * *

Andromeda was lying in her garden. She loved her garden. It was the only place where she felt that she could forget about everything. She would lie on her back and feel the life in all the flowers flowing up through her and filling her.

Her garden was a seemingly endless field of flowers. A small stream of pink winded its way through the countless stems and petals and blades of grass. She stared at a green flower that dipped down toward the edge of the stream. It was weighed down by tiny beads of pink that rested on its petals.

She stretched out her arms and looked up. The roof of her garden she had changed to look like what she thought resembled a sky on Earth. It was a green sky with orange clouds. Andromeda had never been to Earth herself. She smiled to herself and closer her eyes, letting the life of the flowers well up inside her. That's when Firiana crashed in.

She plunged right through the walls of the sphere and the impact forced her to turn several somersaults as she struggled to regain her balance. Andromeda sprang to her feet and ran toward her.

"It's Sol!" screamed Firiana. "Sirius already went, Sol's sphere… Please help him!" Andromeda formed her katana with one hand, grabbed Firiana's arm with the other and was flying toward Sol's sphere less than a second after Firiana had finished what she was saying.

* * *

Sirius burst through the wall of the orange sphere. Sol was lying on his back in a pool of thick orange liquid. Sirius was afraid he might be too late.

"S-Sol?"

There was a gentle twitch in his fingers. Sol slowly opened one eye.

"Sol!" Sirius bent down and held his Zoi to Sol's forehead. There was a flash of light, and Sol's wounds were healed.

"Let's get you off the floor," said Sirius, and pulled him off the floor. He slung one of Sol's arms around his shoulders and helped him over to a couch. After seeing that Sol was comfortable Sirius pulled up a chair.

"What happened to you?" asked Sirius.

"Monster attacked me on my way back from Andromeda'," whispered Sol. "Luminary eater. I barely made it back here."

"Where were the Initomi!" shouted Sirius. "Where was Alpha or Polaris? What are they doing that they can't help us when we are attacked!"

Andromeda ran through the wall of the sphere, dragging Firiana behind her.

"What's going on!" she exclaimed as she rushed into the room.

"Sol what happened to you!" She was shocked to see that his color, which was always so bright, had gone dull and heavy.

"It'll take a while before I'm back up to speed," said Sol. "I lost a lot."

"What did it look like?" demanded Sirius abruptly.

"It was like a scorpion. Light blue," replied Sol.

"Andromeda, let's go," said Sirius, his spear forming in his hand.

"But Sirius-" began Sol.

"No!" shouted Sirius. "I'm tired of this! You've been hurt, Andromeda's been hurt, I've been hurt, all by these monsters! Who knows how many of Andromeda's subjects died at the hands of one! No more! If they're not going to help us we have to take care of ourselves! If they're not going to protect us than I will!"

The following silence rang with the energy of Sirius' speech. No one dared to move.

"Andromeda," he said more gently. "Are you in?"

All she could do was nod.

They found it quickly. It had caught Sol, a lesser luminary, by surprise and while he was alone. But it was no match for Andromeda and Sirius together. They dispatched it by cutting off its tail and pinchers and Andromeda flew underneath it and buried her katana in its belly. It burst into glittering dust and drifted away before Sol and Andromeda had even broken a sweat. They were about to fly back to Sol when two figures came flying into view.

"I c-can't believe we almost didn't make it!" shouted one voice. "H-How could we have ended up halfway across the universe when a monster attacks?"

"It wasn't my fault!" screamed the other. "I scheduled that meeting weeks ago! How was I to know a monster would attack!" It was Polaris and Alpha.

"What have you been doing?" said Sirius to them as they came closer. He spoke in an eerily calm voice. "Every time I or Andromeda or Sol is in trouble you don't come. Where is the Initomi? Where is our backup?"

"I'm sorry Sirius," said Alpha. "But with all the attacks the Initomi are spread thin enough as it is! We've killed almost a hundred monsters since the attacks began and even more are killed by luminaries like you."

"That's not good enough," replied Sirius. "How many have died Alpha?" Andromeda turned away. "How many luminaries have died because your Initomi is spread to thin?"

Alpha had nothing to say in reply.

"Sol almost died today because your Initomi is spread so thin. Don't let this ever happen again."

"Sirius we've been trying to get here for the past hour and a half. We're sorry we didn't get here in time but Sol is okay and you killed the monster quite easily."

An hour and a half!

Sirius suddenly realized how long he had been away from Kathleen.

"I have to go," he blurted out to Andromeda. "Go back and make sure Sol is okay."

"Of course," she replied. Sirius flew off toward his green sphere as fast as he could.

* * *

He stepped into his sphere and looked around. Instantly he knew that something was wrong. Something didn't smell right.

"Kathleen!" he called. No answer.

"Kathleen!" he shouted, louder. Still no answer.

Feeling sicker every second Sirius rushed up to the observatory deck. No Kathleen. She wasn't in her room either.

He traced it down to the garden. The smell. The smell he hated. The ozone-jasmine scent that he traced back to so many bad memories that still stung him. Kathleen was gone and she had been here. She in her pearly white with her blue consort. They had Kathleen.

* * *

It is said that Sirius' subsequent scream could have been heard beyond the corners of the universe. 


	12. Wild Horses II

Childhood living is easy to do, the things you wanted I bought them for you. Graceless lady; you know who I am. You know I can't let you slide through my hands. Wild horses couldn't drag me away. Wild, wild horses couldn't drag me away – Wild Horses, The Rolling Stones

* * *

She had watched Sirius fly away with a very pale face and wished he had taken her with him. She didn't like being alone anymore. She had a very bad feeling about being alone.

She went down to the garden to take her mind off her feelings. She sat down on the bench where Sirius had told her about his Companion and stared ahead at the white and black roses crawling up the wall. Her eyes grew blurry and the white meshed with the black and turned all the roses gray.

Gray? Kathleen shook herself out of her daze. There was gray there, but it wasn't from the roses. It was the mist again. The eyes in the mist were wide and fearful. Pleading.

An eerie laugh echoed through the sphere. The voice sent shivers up Kathleen's spine. The voice was like ice, like mirrors breaking, like nails on a chalkboard. It was everything terrible and fearful.

Kathleen was terrified. The laugh didn't seem to be coming from the mist. It came from somewhere above. Her mind was racing through possible options and by the time she finally realized she needed to get off the bench and run somewhere it was too late. She saw a flash of pearly white upon the stairs.

The woman who shone white stood there. She didn't burn, she shone. Her color and her face, evil and twisted, awakened a dim memory sleeping in Kathleen's subconscious. But as soon as she tried to catch the memory it sprinted away. It left one word. Something Sirius had said in the garden to her. Companion.

"Such a pretty thing you have become," she said. "No wonder Sirius acts the way he does. It is an act though, you know. It's all an act."

"Sirius is not an act," said Kathleen in a hard voice. Whatever this thing was going to do to her, Kathleen would not have it talk badly about Sirius.

"Everything is an act my dear. It doesn't matter anyway. Your dear Sirius has left you all alone. Doesn't he know of the dangers that lurk outside and inside?" She smirked, and held out something black.

It was nothingness and shadow. It was death and evil and despair. It was black and nothing. It was the ugliest thing Kathleen had ever seen.

"I've waited a long time for this, my dear," she said, and raised the thing high above her head. Suddenly a gray mist, the gray mist that had been hovering near the roses, drifted in between Kathleen and Companion.

"What are you doing here?" Companion asked the mist, sneering. "No matter. You can't save her, and you don't really want to anyway!" A black tendril shot out of the thing in her hands and struck the mist away, and like smoke it dissipated.

"Now then," she said, turning back to Kathleen. "Where were we?"

* * *

Andromeda felt Sol's sphere quake under her feet at the sound of Sirius' scream. She felt like she was being ripped apart herself at the anguish in Sirius' voice. She immediately turned to fly out of Sol's sphere and go to him, but then she remembered Sol.

Sol was struggling to get off the couch. The effort was visibly draining him of the little energy he had left.

"Sol, you can't-"

"We have to go to him Andromeda," said Sol slowly. "It has to be Kathleen. We can't leave him alone. Both of us, we have to go… now."

Andromeda nodded and went over to go help him, but he shrugged her off and walked, as straight as he could, across the room and through the sphere wall. Andromeda followed him, spreading her gorgeous double wings and jumping out into the universe.

* * *

Sirius was broken. This was infinitely worse than when Kathleen believed him to be the source of all her problems. Now she knew what he was now, who he was, and she cared about him, at least Sirius thought she did. And _she_ had taken Kathleen away. His Companion.

With a sudden burst of rage Sirius pounded his fists against the floor he was kneeling on. But his sphere did not give him the hard, hand shattering satisfaction he so desired. It turned soft underneath his hands and held them in a gentle embrace.

* * *

Andromeda wanted to go faster, but she knew Sol could not keep up, and she wanted them to arrive together. Presently she became aware of someone following her, and when she turned she saw Polaris and Alpha.

"What are you doing?" she called after them. Sol turned and glared at them.

"We're coming," said Polaris.

Andromeda didn't know why they were coming, and she realized she didn't really care. All she wanted to do was get to Sirius. A painful image resurrected in her mind. Sirius, falling, faster and faster through space. Reaching unknown space and about to plunge in. His eyes. Oh his eyes! So filled with pain and grief and despair when she looked into them as she pulled him away from the darkness of Unknown space. She didn't want to ever have to face those eyes again. And with a twinge in her chest, she realized she would have to.

* * *

Kathleen awoke some where dark and cold. Very dark. The first thing she noticed was the pain. The shocking, shooting pain all up her arms and in her head. She moaned and put her head in her hands, which only made her hands hurt more. She didn't know where she was, why she was here or why her hands and head hurt so much. After a few minutes of wallowing in the dark she surrendered to her pain fell unconscious.

* * *

Sirius didn't know there was anyone else in the room with him. He didn't know anything. Even when Andromeda knelt in front of him so they were at eye level and stared into his eyes he didn't realize what he was looking at. It was only when Andromeda gently ran her warm, burning hand down his cheek that he realized she was even there.

"Sirius?" she said.

A voice calling to him from a dream.

"Sirius?" she said again.

Slowly his eyes focused on who was before him instead of parading through memories. Andromeda was there… what was she doing here?

A warm presence on his cheek, what had brought him out of his state. He put his hand to it and found Andromeda's hand there. He brought it away from his cheek but kept holding it. Slowly he fell forward into Andromeda's embrace. No tear escaped from his eyes, no sob from his lips. He stayed as he was, letting Andromeda's burning pink warm his soul and make him live again.

* * *

Sirius pulled away from her, and he saw that there were others in the room. Sol rested heavily against the doorframe and stared at him, Polaris and Alpha stood to the side, their faces turned away.

And suddenly he knew.

He jumped to his feet, startling Andromeda. He lent her his hand to help her up and then he began to pace the room, a bright fire shining in his eyes.

"We have to go after her," he stated. "At least I do. She… my Companion… she took Kathleen and I am going to track her down and get Kathleen back if it's the last thing I ever do!"

"Sirius you don't even have a clue as to where she is!" exclaimed Alpha.

"I don't care!" he shouted. "I'm going to find her even if I have to rip this universe apart sphere by sphere! I knew Kathleen couldn't have killed her! I knew… she did everything wrong that night… I always knew… but I didn't believe… No matter." He stopped. There was something else here, in his sphere, something he hadn't noticed before. He looked around the room-it was the garden, how could he have forgotten the garden- and searched for its source. He looked at the others, they noticed it to. Underneath the presence of the sphere, of Sirius, which was everywhere, there lay something else. Something darker, sinister even.

Sirius was the one to find it, near the roses growing in the corner. It was left over from something, a residue. Dark magical residue.

The others came to stand with him and they all examined the evidence. It wasn't really anything substantial, just a small black ball of something thicker than air.

"Something this powerful must have been a Zoi," said Sol.

"I don't know," replied Andromeda. "It… It just feels wrong. Like a Zoi but not like a Zoi."

"This came from no Zoi," said Polaris. "At least not one that any luminaries would come across."

"Then where in all the universe did it come from?" asked Alpha.

Sirius knew he had felt something like this darkness once before, not long ago. When he had tried to lose himself, pulled away at the last moment by Andromeda.

"I know what it is," said Sirius. Four burning faces turned in his direction.

"It's from Unknown Space. That's where she is. That's where Companion took her."

* * *

Kathleen slipped back into consciousness. Slowly things began to make sense in her mind. What had been shapes and sounds became things and voices.

Companion. The one who had hurt Sirius so much. She came to the sphere… she did something to the gray mist. She meant to strike at Kathleen next. Kathleen would not have it. She had tried to attack Companion. She had caught her by surprise and tackled her to the floor. She tried to wrestle the thing out of her hands but she was not prepared for what the thing felt like. That's where the pain had come from. That thing had been too painful to hold, it felt like lightning tearing through her arms. She dropped it and kicked Companion in the face. Pearly liquid dripped out of her nose. This made her very angry. She pushed Kathleen away and grabbed the black thing. She aimed it at Kathleen's head and she couldn't remember anything after that. Everything else before waking up with pain in her arms and her head was a blur. She knew there had been two luminaries present. She had a feeling the other one was blue but she couldn't be sure.

She noticed she was no longer wearing the skirt and shirt she had on. She was now dressed in an ugly brown dress that looked like something a peasant would have worn in the middle ages.

Finally she pulled herself into a sitting position. Her arms felt useless, two lead weights tied onto her body. Everything around her was still very dark, but she found she could see through it, as if her eyes were coated with a glowing film.

It was a very small room she was in. There was a door but no handle on her side. The floor was bare except for a thin, ragged blanket she had slept on. There was nothing else.

Kathleen tried to still her racing heart.

"She wants you for something," she said aloud to herself. "She wants you for something and she is going to have to take you out of this room for whatever it is. That's when you get her!" Kathleen breathed easier. She thought of Sol, of Andromeda, of Sirius. She knew that if she could not get out soon, Sirius would come for her.

* * *

She had complete faith in him. 


	13. Patience

I sit here on the stairs cause I'd rather be alone If I can't have you right now I'll wait dear Sometimes I get so tense but I can't speed up the time But you know love there's one more thing to consider – Patience, Guns N' Roses

* * *

The small group of luminaries stared at Sirius with a look of mild shock.

"Sirius this is impossible!" began Alpha. "There's no one in Unknown Space! It's impossible…" He drifted off.

"How can she still be alive!" exclaimed Polaris. "She died! We knew she died! Her energy is all gone!"

"Are you sure Sirius?" asked Andromeda.

"You remember what Unknown Space felt like," he replied. Andromeda shuddered. "Trust me. That's where they are." She looked down at the dark spot that was floating in the air. Somewhere behind her Alpha and Polaris were arguing.

"When do we leave?"

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. It was Sol, still leaning on the doorframe.

"When are we going?" he asked again. Sirius smiled grimly.

"Now."

* * *

Kathleen slowly felt around the room. It felt like it was made of something very smooth and thicker than glass. It seemed almost insubstantial, as if a strong wind might blow it away. She hammered with her fists on the door with no handle until her arms felt like they had been dipped in molten lead they hurt so badly; but to no avail. The door didn't move an inch. So she sat down and waited.

As she waited she listened. There were sounds above and below her. There were footsteps above, some soft and some heavier, and she soon concluded that they belonged to only two different things.

Below her was what scared her. Below her were screams of rage, sounds of ripping and tearing, grinding of what seemed like hundreds of sets of teeth. She wondered if whatever was below her was strong enough to come through her floor. She listened for a long time, but the sounds neither lessened nor increased.

And as she listened for the monsters she heard another sound. Something that was on the same level as she was, between the footsteps and the monsters. It was so soft she couldn't be sure that she had heard it at first, but when she blocked out all other noises and focused on the sound there could be no mistaking what it was.

Someone was crying.

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay to come Sol?" asked Sirius. Sol nodded.

"I'll be fine," he replied. "Don't slow down on my account." Sirius turned to Andromeda.

"Are you with me?"

"I'm always with you," she said smiling. Sirius turned away from her and Sol noticed a slightly deeper shade of pink on Andromeda's cheeks.

"Then let's head out," said Sirius, and made to leap through the walls of his sphere.

"Just a moment," said Polaris. "S-Sirius, we h-have decided to c-come with you." Sirius face drew into an expression of confusion mixed with surprise.

"Why?"

"Because if she is alive it threatens the entire security of the Universe, and we would feel better going with you ourselves than sending some of the Initomi with you," said Alpha. "Besides, we need the Initomi here to protect against further monster attacks."

Sirius shrugged. "Fine then. But when I find her I'm enacting my own justice, not waiting for some Council decision!" he declared with bright eyes. Alpha and Polaris did not reply, and within a few seconds all five of them were flying down through the Universe towards the black abyss known as Unknown Space.

* * *

Andromeda was the only one to notice, Sirius being too focused on his destination and Alpha and Polaris being too deep in conversation. So she flew back to him and slung a fiery orange arm over her shoulder.

"Thanks," he said stiffly.

"It is not a problem," said Andromeda, and they flew for a few minutes in silence. As they continued on some distance was put between them and the others, while passing luminaries looked at them and wondered what they were about.

"Andromeda," said Sol finally.

"Yes?"

He bit his lip, whether from exhaustion or hesitation she couldn't tell.

"I… I see how you look at Sirius," Andromeda's cheeks deepened several shades of pink. "I see how you act around him. I just want to warn you. I don't want to see you get yourself hurt." Andromeda turned her face away from him.

"It… It's not like that Sol, really," she said, her voice betraying her.

"He is devoted to Kathleen, Andromeda. He has been lonely for her since he left her seventeen years ago, and no one can forget those kinds of feelings, no matter how much you may want them to."

"I know that Sol, It's just…"

"It's okay," he said. "Just be careful is all. I don't want you to go through pain you don't have to go through."

Andromeda sighed.

"I'm already there Sol."

* * *

"Polaris?" Sirius' voice broke through the depths of Alpha and Polaris' conversation.

"Yes Sirius?" replied the small white luminary.

"Polaris I thought there was only one hundred Celestial monsters," said Sirius thoughtfully.

"Yes, there are only a hundred."

"But Alpha said that the Initomi had killed almost a hundred, and many others were killed by regular luminaries."

Alpha spoke up. "Sirius there are only a hundred monsters," he looked away. "The monster we fought three days ago was Yhri. The scorpion you and Andromeda was reported as killed a few weeks ago. They keep coming back!"

"We'll then how do we stop them from coming back?" asked Sirius.

"We can't!" exclaimed Alpha. "They only reason they haven't been attacking all these years is because She was able to seal them somehow in Unknown Space!"

"She freed them," said Sirius suddenly. "She must have found a way to free them."

As if on cue, something suddenly flew up towards them out of the darkness, trailing darkness behind it. It was small; it looked like a spider.

Sirius glared at it with his burning gaze, and it quivered under his look. Meekly it retreated back into the darkness that it came from.

"She's locked in there," muttered Sirius to himself. "Locked in there with the likes of those things."

* * *

They were just above the sea of darkness now. Sirius turned to look behind him. Four sets of fiery eyes met his.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Without speaking they nodded.

"Then let's go." He turned down toward the darkness and pulled his wings up, gracefully plunging in headfirst.

The darkness wasn't painful, but it felt odd. It pulled Sirius down with surprising strength, and he wasn't sure he could have flown back up even if he wanted to. It seemed the abyss would go on forever, and it came as a great shock to him when he saw a gray floor rushing up toward his face. He threw his wings out and pulled out of his dive and landed on the floor with a slight tremor. His landing seemed to have sent a pulse through the darkness, like a ripple in water.

He stared ahead and saw that he was at the beginning of a long tunnel, made op of a slightly more solid substance than the darkness in the long drop. There were no lights along it, but there was an eerie glow that seemed to come from the walls themselves.

Sirius heard two thumps behind him. Alpha and Polaris were sitting on the floor, apparently being less agile than Sirius in maneuvering the sudden stop. In a moment Andromeda and Sol landed easily on their feet next to them. Alpha and Polaris got up and stared down the passage.

"It doesn't end," murmured Sol. Sol looked stronger now, his color was coming back and standing didn't seem to exhaust him. Sirius was grateful for that.

"Come on," said Sirius, and made ready to start running down the tunnel.

"Wait Sirius," said Andromeda. "Why don't we walk?" Her eyes flashed for less than a second in Sol's direction. "We don't want to have to fight something and already be exhausted."

Sirius didn't want to walk. He wanted to run to wherever this tunnel led to and find Kathleen now. But Andromeda had a point. If this was where all the monsters were coming from they would have to fight more than one battle and he would be no use to Kathleen if he died. Slowly, he nodded.

"Weapons out," said Andromeda sternly. The five bright luminaries began their trek down the passage.

* * *

Kathleen awoke with a start. She wondered why she had woken up so suddenly, and she realized the door was open and white light was pouring into the room. She scrambled up and stared into the light.

"I'm glad you're awake," she said. "You can come out now. Everything is ready for you." Slowly Kathleen walked out of the cell, more than slightly nervous about what Companion meant. The luminary stepped to the side to reveal an opulent bedchamber.

Kathleen looked at her, confused. "What is this?"

"It's your room my dear," said Companion, in a voice that sounded of ice smothered in honey. "I'm sorry I had to keep you in there, but your room wasn't ready for you."

"Why did you bring me here?" said Kathleen, uncomfortably reminding herself of what she had asked of Sirius when he brought her to the Star World.

"I rescued you!" said Companion, half surprised. "That horrible green luminary had you locked up like a prisoner! Don't you remember!" Her gaze looked hopeful.

Kathleen smiled at her. "It was you who rescued me! Oh I couldn't bear to be with that monster any longer! Thank you!"

A strange glow came into the white luminary's eyes. "It was no trouble at all my dear. Now you get yourself settled while me and my friend figure out how to get you back home to earth." She left, and Kathleen was left alone with her thoughts.

She knew that black thing had done something to her head. She found several memories there of Sirius being cruel to her, of being locked in a small room while she heard him laughing outside the door. But they didn't feel like real memories, and the voice that was given to the Sirius of her artificial memories was not his real voice. This voice was weak and rusty. Sirius' real voice was strong. She didn't know what Companion was trying to do to her with planting these fake memories, but she would play like she believed them until Sirius came for her.

In the meantime, she promised, she would look for that dark black thing, and try to figure out a way to get back to him.


	14. Strange Days

Strange days have found us and through their strange hours we linger alone. Bodies confused, memories misused, as we run from the day to a strange night of stone. – Strange Days, The Doors.

* * *

"We've been walking for hours Sirius!" said Alpha. "What if you're wrong? What if she's not down here at all?"

"She's here Alpha," he replied. "No one's asking you to stay."

Sirius was getting more and more tense. He didn't like this darkness, it felt wrong. He knew she was here of course, but the longer they spent walking the more nervous about her condition he became.

As if to satisfy Alpha's doubts, something large and very fast came barreling down the tunnel toward them. Sirius took to the air and rushed at it. From the corner of his eyes he saw Andromeda and Sol had taken his lead and were flying in formation underneath him.

Their combined light illuminated it. It was completely black, except for two bright spots of silver that Sirius assumed were eyes. Its movements lacked any grace or fluidity, it was off balance and unsure of its own feet. It seemed to lack any sort of shape or definition, and kept changing before their eyes.

Sirius tried to strike it first. He dove at it headfirst and as he was about to slice the monsters flesh open with his spear the monster formed a paw and swatted him away. Sirius went spiraling through the air in the other direction and the blow was so great that it was a few moments before he gained control of his flight.

Andromeda and Sol flew at it together, but were met with similar results. Sirius pulled out his Zoi, which in dagger form had been strapped to his side, and pointed it at the monster, in an attempt to blow it out of existence. A vibration shot through the air, but part of the monster it would have hit disappeared and curved around the vibration. It was resistant to the power of his Zoi.

Andromeda tried to use her Zoi, which was always tied around her waist, to create a cage out of the darkness to contain the monster, but the darkness of the tunnel disobeyed her. It was clear that the powers of the Zoi, infinite on the outside, were useless against the darkness of Unknown space and it's more powerful monsters.

There were bright flashes of light on one of the monster's sides. Alpha was hurling his daggers at record speeds at it, distracting it, while on the other side Polaris dived down low with his battle ax and swiped at the base of the monster. Polaris' attack hit home and the monster reared back in rage. Showing grace no one knew he possessed, Polaris dodged three of the monsters swipes at him and rejoined Alpha at a safe distance on the monster's other side.

Alpha nodded to Sirius, who understood at once what he meant. He turned to Sol and Andromeda, and saw that they too, understood.

Alpha flew around to the monster's front and made sure it's silver chips of eyes were looking at him, and then began hurling daggers at it. He dipped and flew around the monster's front, his daggers hitting at different angles and keeping the monster's eyes trained on him.

Sirius, Polaris, Andromeda and Sol simultaneously crept around to the monster's back. Silently they dove in for the attack together, but just as they were within a few feet of the monster black tendrils burst out of its back and entwined themselves around the four luminaries.

Stunned, it was a moment before they began hacking through the darkness that bound them. In the meantime the monster had been creeping steadily closer to Alpha, who was backed up against the wall of the tunnel.

In one fluid motion, Sirius hacked through the tendril and impaled his spear into the monsters back. Sol cut through Andromeda's bonds and then his and Andromeda in turn followed Sirius' lead and thrust her katana into where a vital point should be. Then Sol and Polaris flew up toward the eyes. Sol swung his scythe down and around and right in between the silver points of light.

The monster didn't move. For a moment they thought it was finished, and then a strange vibration not unlike a Zoi shook the air around them. Sirius twisted his spear within the monsters back to no effect. Andromeda pulled her katana out and readied herself for whatever was going to come.

But nothing could have prepared her for what was going to come next.

* * *

Kathleen stared at the door that the pearly luminary had left through for a few minutes. When she couldn't hear anything but the usual sounds of roaring beneath her and footsteps above her she got up off the bed and went to the door. But as she reached for the door handle a shooting pain struck her head and sent her reeling. She landed back on the bed with her hands over her ears, shaking her head and biting her lip to try and get rid of the pain. Her vision swam before her eyes and when it came back into focus, she was no longer standing in the same room.

It was a dark, cool place. The ground was soft and a deep, vibrant green that reminded Kathleen of moss. The light seemed to be coming from the ground, and the dimensions of the room, if it had any, were impossible to see in the darkness. She felt like she had been here a long time ago, in a dream perhaps.

Kathleen became aware of another presence in the room, a little way in front of her.

"Who are you?" she called out in a shaky voice.

Slowly a tall figure came out of the darkness. It was him, again. The man with the dark eyes and the scar across his face. The one who had brought her outside the day she died. The one who had appeared in a dream.

He smiled sadly at her. "Hello Kathleen," he said. "Did you miss me?"

Confused for a moment, Kathleen realized that she had missed him. She wanted to know who he was, and why he was so concerned about her.

"I didn't think things would go this way Kathleen," he admitted sadly. "This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. It was... I thought she was gone! I thought you killed her... but I suppose was wrong."

He sighed. "I am dead, dear Kathleen. I died a few weeks after you. I needed surgery after the accident. The doctor did something wrong... I died of blood poisoning. And then I returned down here, and began checking up on you to make sure you were okay. But you're not okay. I swear I didn't know this was going to happen!" He smiled again. "I never used to get upset over anything. I'll have to thank you for that one day. Anyway, I promise I'm coming soon. I have to take care of some things here, but I'll come as soon as I can."

"Why are you telling me this? Why do you care about me?"

"I'm sorry I can't explain further. You'll know everything if - when we get through this mess."

The dark place was fading away.

"Don't lose hope Kathleen. He's coming for you," said the man before the place disappeared and Kathleen was laying headache free on her bed.

* * *

She got up off the bed and went for the door knob again. This time she touched it without incident and opened the door with ease.

The hallway was white. Kathleen thought it looked doubtful, and when she swiped a finger across it the white wiped off and gave way to a streak of black. Smiling bitterly, she continued to walk down the hallway.

There was a short set of stairs at the end of the hallway that led to a kitchen. Kathleen found she wasn't hungry and actually had no desire to eat ever. It was more a force of habit.

As she went back down the stairs she wondered for a moment at the dead end of the hall by the stairs. She knew there had been someone crying on the same level as her, and if the white walls themselves were an illusion, who was to say...

She pushed a hand through the wall and it melted away, giving way to a hall of darkness.

Warily, she continued down the hallway, the only light source being the darkness that gave off an eerie glow.

The darkness, thankfully, was not a maze of any sort and was as straight as the fake white hallway.

About fifty feet down the corridor made a sharp turn to the right and abruptly ended. Slightly confused, Kathleen made an about face and started walking back down toward the white corridor.

That's when she heard it. A small, almost insignificant gasp, coming from somewhere behind the wall to her left.

"Who's there?" asked Kathleen boldly.

There was silence for a moment.

"It's only me." The reply came in the form of a beautiful voice Kathleen had never heard before. The short, simple sentence it had uttered flowed like music to Kathleen's ears, a melody that soared and for an instant took Kathleen away. She shook her head and was back, and the voice was talking again.

"Is there a door? Or a handle on your side?" it asked, sadly, pathetically, but even this emotion when spoken by this voice demanded respect.

"N... No," Kathleen was forced to answer, and felt as if she had just done some cruel and heartless thing. The voice sighed.

"Then please, sit and talk to me for a moment."

"Of course!" gasped Kathleen, embarrassed that the possessor of this voice would lower herself to have a conversation with her earthly self.

"You're the girl," said the voice. "The girl they have been talking about for months."

"Yes," said Kathleen. "I suppose I must be."

"They've been after you for a long time. I can hear that at least. Their voices rise when they speak of you, especially the white one. She screams with anger and emotion." It suddenly occurred to Kathleen that the voice belonged to a female.

"Why do you think they wanted to get you?" she asked.

"To punish Sirius," replied Kathleen without thinking. "She hates Sirius. She tried to kill him once and is using me as bait to make him come here and try to kill him again!" Kathleen's voice cracked. "And I can't do anything to help him!" She bit her lip to repress a sob.

"Shhh child, it's alright." Her words enveloped Kathleen like a blanket, instantly warm and comforting. "I can hear them talk. He's coming for you even as we speak."

"But what if the monster's are too much for him?" asked Kathleen. "What if they gang up on him and just-" she couldn't finish.

"Do you really believe that he will let himself be destroyed before he sees you again?" she asked.

Kathleen stopped her worrying immediately. "No," she answered simply.

"Good. I do not think so either. I never knew the current Sirius. I knew the very, very first one, back when the Universe was still young. But he had a fiery temper and fierce loyalty, and I firmly believe that the current Sirius can be no different."

There was a moment of silence.

"Who are you?" said Kathleen suddenly, regretting she said it. But the voice laughed, a beautiful, high laugh that was like golden bells on a wedding day.

"I have no name dear, I never have and I never will," she said. "So I'm not really sure how to answer your question myself. But maybe-" She stopped as if she were listening for something.

"One of them is coming," Kathleen felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. "It's the white one. Get back to your room quickly! We'll talk again when she leaves!"

Kathleen jumped off the floor where she had fallen into a sitting position and made a mad dash for the white hallway. She turned to the place where the wall had melted away and touched it.

"Please, please just go back to being white!" she begged it, and to her great astonishment, it obeyed.

Unbelieving of her good luck, she raced into the room, dove on the bed and pretended to be asleep.

* * *

Not ten seconds later, Companion entered the room. She didn't move for a few minutes, and then, satisfied that Kathleen really was asleep, she touched her forehead.

It was that black thing that radiated evil. Kathleen felt it burning into her skull as a vision came into focus before her eyes, it was of Sirius, killing Leo by burning the dog to death. Kathleen realized that Companion was trying to send her a nightmare about an evil, horrible Sirius.

She's trying to brainwash me, thought Kathleen. She wants me to turn against him. In her mind's eye she grinned. Well, she'll have to do better than that!

After sending her the false dream, the white luminary quickly left the room. Kathleen meant to get up again, but the dream had exhausted her, and she fell back down to the bed and fell asleep.

* * *

Alpha had his back to the wall, taking advantage of the lull in the battle to rest his wings a bit.

Suddenly the monster started shaking and with a sound unlike any of the luminaries had ever heard it grew to the full height of the chamber. Black tendrils burst out of the wall and bound Alpha to the darkness before he could cry out.

* * *

Sirius, Andromeda, Sol, and Polaris had their own problems to deal with. At the sound of the monster's screech, more monsters had emerged from the walls. More monsters than they could count. Dark black tentacles burst out of the wall, out of the ground, out of the ceiling. They saw Alpha trapped by them but they could do nothing for him at the present. They hung suspended in midair, knowing that a few feet in any direction and the tentacles or the monsters would be on them.

"The tunnel _is_ the monster!" Sol cried to Andromeda, but she was looking at Sirius.

Sirius' face was blank, expressionless.

* * *

Panicked, Alpha started forming daggers and trying to cut the darkness off of him. Every time he struck it away it only grew back, with more of it and stronger than before. He looked toward the others and saw that the darkness was everywhere, that there were more monsters, and he struck at his bonds faster.

"Sirius?" said Andromeda softly. He didn't look at her.

With a scream to rival the monster's cry, Sirius lunged for the monsters.


	15. Love Will Keep Us Alive

When we're hungry, Love will keep us alive - Love Will Keep Us Alive - The Eagles

* * *

Kathleen waited a long time after she woke up. When she was sure that no one was coming back to get her, she got up and went back down the hallway. The fake wall dissolved at her touch again, and she found the space of empty wall where the voice came from.

"I'm back," she said softly.

"That's good," the voice replied, in a melancholy tone.

"What's wrong?" asked Kathleen.

"I'm sorry," she answered. "What's your name?"

"Kathleen," she replied, amazed that she hadn't said so earlier.

"Kathleen, I have not been honest with you, really," she said sadly. "I think we have some time now, and I will tell you everything I know."

Kathleen sat down: she had a feeling that this would take a while.

"You asked me who I was before, and I didn't tell you. I was going to ask if maybe you had heard of me from someone, anyone. Everyone used to know me.

"I came to the universe I don't know how long ago. It all meshes together. I came with someone," here her voice took on a dreamy tone. "I don't know how we came here, we used to be somewhere else, but when we came here we found it in chaos. The luminaries were like children. We taught them everything, and we came to love them all like they were our own children.

Kathleen gasped. "Wait!" she interrupted. "You're Her! The silver one! And the person you came with was Him, He was... is gold!"

"I see you did hear of us from someone. Yes, that's who I am. But there is more to the story than you heard from anyone, because I am the only one who knows the ending."

* * *

Sirius had turned into a machine. He cut, stabbed, and slashed almost without thinking. Every time he was cut or hurt he paid no attention.

Unfortunately this was doing little good. The monsters were innumerable, and every time Sirius took one down another took its place. He noticed that they were much weaker than the first monster had been, but the sheer number of them more than made up for what they lacked in brute strength and endurance.

He was fighting alone at the bottom of the chamber, artfully dodging tendrils and slashes and the teeth some of the monsters had. He plunged his spear into a silver eye and the monster it belonged to went down. He turned his own eyes above him to the sea of darkness and silver eyes.

"There must be a better way!" he cried.

* * *

Kathleen was silent, and waited for Her to take up the story again.

"One day I was flying close to Unknown Space, and I saw one of the monsters emerge from it. I killed it before it could hurt my children, and then I entered Unknown Space to see if I could find someway to kill them all off.

"I traveled for a long time. Hours, days, I don't know. Every once in a while a monster would emerge from the darkness and I would kill it. As I traveled on and fought more, I grew more and more tired, and knew that a few more battles and I would be too fatigued to continue on."

She stopped for a moment.

"I wanted to see Him again. I resolved that I would go a little farther and then turn back. I would go to Him and he would help me. We would come back here together and find out what was causing the monsters and stop it. Together." She sighed.

"But that was not to happen. I went on a little further and I came upon that thing that radiates evil power. Zoi's had no effect upon the monsters, but this thing did. It could kill them in an instant, but they still came back and I didn't know why. I decided to take it out and bring it to Him, maybe with Him we could figure out a way to stop them from ever coming back again, and our children would be safe forever.

"But touching the thing changed me. Strings of hate, of powerlust, of anger, of bitterness began to run through me. But I had far too much love in my heart for them to affect me. Love is always stronger than hate.

"I began to hate second thoughts about bringing it back out of Unknown Space. Would I subject the universe, my children, Him... Would I expose them to this evil thing? Would I corrupt the universe by bringing into it what never should be? No. I refused to do that to them.

"So I chose another route. I could not stop the monsters from outside Unknown Space, so I would stop them from the inside.

"So I sealed us all inside here. Myself, the monsters, everything and everyone. They never knew what happened to me did they? They just know I went into Unknown Space and never came out, don't they?"

"Yes," Kathleen replied. "That's all they know."

"What... What does He say about it?" She asked softly.

"He doesn't say anything. He hasn't spoken a word to anyone ever since you disappeared."

She didn't say anything for a long time.

"Kathleen... Do you... Do you think he still loves me?"

* * *

Polaris had fought his way over to Alpha, who was by this time half sucked into the wall. Polaris cut at the darkness around him and with some effort managed to free him from the wall.

"This looks bad old friend," said Polaris.

"We'll beat them," said Alpha, a bit too optimistically. "Have faith!"

Suddenly a huge group of monsters seemed to notice them. They turned as one and were on them in seconds as more tendrils burst from the wall and sought to wrap themselves around the two luminary's wings. Polaris tightened his grip on his axe.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

* * *

Kathleen was completely taken aback. "I- I don't know," she said lamely.

"That's okay," She said, in a brighter tone. "I haven't gotten to the end yet."

Kathleen calmed down a bit and waited for the rest.

"Using the anti-Zoi, as I will call it now, I built this palace and the surrounding grounds. I molded it out of the darkness, so that I could live in some sort of relative comfort. But because of the seal I placed on Unknown Space I wasn't able to make a passage to the entrance. I lived here, alone, for... I don't know how many years. Thousands? Maybe millions.

"I was so lonely. I had no one to talk to, nothing that could even understand me. I started talking to the walls, conversing with the darkness. But I eventually realized that unless I stopped that I might lose the love in my heart, and then I would succumb to the hate that the anti-Zoi had instilled in me. You see, that was the only thing that kept me going. My love for Him, for our children, it was the only thing that kept me level and kept me to the side of light.

"Then, one day, not so long ago it seems, they came. I don't know how they got here, or who sent them here, but the white one and the blue one showed up. You can imagine how I reacted, seeing my first luminary in such a long time! I catered to their every whim, I talked my head off, I talked about the Universe as I had known it and asked them questions about it today that I didn't give them time to answer!

"But I talked too much. Somewhere in our long, extremely one sided conversation they figured out who I was and they asked me how I came to be here. I told them all about the monsters, about the anti-Zoi, about everything. They listened very patiently and calmly. They were just as stuck as I was, and I told them so and I told them that all three of us would have to make the best of it.

"So they stayed with me for a couple of years. We lived side by side, talking, laughing, and sharing stories. I never suspected anything. They never told me how they came to be here and I didn't press the matter further.

"And then one day the white one asked me to see the anti-Zoi. I hid it away you see. I didn't think it would be a problem, what could she do with it! So I said of course and I took it out of hiding and I showed it to her. She asked me if she could hold it, and this I would not let her do. She was upset of course, but I wouldn't let her.

"That didn't stop her of course. What she doesn't have she takes. She took it out of hiding when I was in another part of the palace, on the grounds maybe.

"I had enough love in my heart to counteract the hate that thing gave off when I touched it. But when _she _grabbed it in her greedy little paws... She had so much hate in her heart already, and the anti-Zoi magnified it to horrific proportions!

"The first thing she did with it, the _first thing_ she did was to lock me in this cell and take away any power I might still be able to use over her. So I sat here and I waited. I learned how to listen. I learned how they were planning to open up Unknown Space again, and I felt it when they did. I knew the monsters were out there again, hurting my children, if any of my children were still alive, and even if they weren't I had to protect my children's children and their children. And then I thought about Him. If He was still out there, and if he still loved me, and if he did, when hadn't he come into Unknown Space after me.

"I eventually realized why, but it was too late by then. The white one was sealing Unknown Space again after she sent out every slew of monsters. She sealed it one way, so that they could get out and no one could get in. But like I said, by the time I realized that it was too late."

"Too late for what?" Kathleen asked.

"Too late for you, my dear," She said dismally.

* * *

Sol and Andromeda were fighting back to back at the top of the tunnel. Though they had a high kill count they were becoming tired and it seemed as though there was no end to the darkness in sight. Sol knew that if something didn't happen soon they would all die in this miserable place.

Andromeda suddenly broke away from him. He wheeled around and saw that she hadn't done it willingly, that's a tendril had burst out of the ceiling and had thrown her halfway across the tunnel. As soon as she righted herself a dozen monsters jumped on her and she was lost under the darkness.

Sol took this all in as he was speeding towards where she had gone down. He plunged his scythe into the neck of one of the monsters and swung off of her and around into the opposing wall. Two of the monsters to his left were felled in a swirl of pink and Sol knew that Andromeda was fine.

In killing the three monsters Sol could now see her clearly. She was cutting down a pair of silver eyes when another came and swiped her in the side. She winced for a moment and then went after the one who had injured her, more annoyed than anything. Sol dropped down to finish the one she had left and followed her pink frame through the darkness.

He found her cornering the monster and about to finish it off. He began hurrying toward her so they could fight together again. Suddenly a monster, much, much bigger than the one she was trying to kill came up behind her, and it was opening it's wide jaws. Maybe it was the original one. Sol knew he didn't have time to scream to her too look out, he saw only one way to save her.

* * *

"I decided that I had to lure Him here," She continued, "if I was ever to see him again. I was desperate! I found a little of my power left, and I used to too attack a part of my essence to some of the monsters that left. I didn't find him, but I found you.

"I knew who you and Sirius was the instant I saw you. The white one had been talking about you incessantly. You were all part of her plan. I knew she was going to try and bring you here someway.

"I was torn. I didn't want her to bring you here, but I wanted to see him again. I thought something like a kidnapping into Unknown Space would bring him running for sure. I didn't know what to do!

"So I settled for watching you, and waiting. Perhaps you noticed the silvery smoke from time to time.

"But when I realized why he couldn't come in, it was too late. She already had you in her clutches. I tried to protect you, but I am almost powerless! It's my fault you're here Kathleen! I should have found someway to warn you, but I was too selfish! It's my fault you're here and you might get hurt and my fault that Sirius is fighting his way to you right now!"

She stopped talking, and Kathleen was sure she could here sobbing from behind the wall.

* * *

Andromeda was about to slash her katana across its eyes when she was roughly shoved to the side by a blur of orange. A pair of black jaws came down upon him with a sickening crunch that took Andromeda's breath away. Sol brought his scythe up and over and into one of the eyes. The monster roared in pain and dropped him. Sol fell for a few moments and then feebly recovered.

"You stay away from her!" he called to the retreating monster. He winced in pain and grabbed his side and Andromeda finally noticed gash in his shirt and the blood pouring out of the wound.

After seeing what Sol had done to their leader the monsters had backed off for a moment, but it wouldn't be long before they were attacking again. Andromeda flew to him and untied her Zoi from around her waist.

"Sol?" she said. He turned to her and she held her Zoi to his side where the wound was. Sol could feel the heat of her hand through the Zoi. There was small burst of pink light and Sol's wounds closed. Andromeda took away her Zoi and wrapped it back around her waist.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him. Sol simply smiled at her and winked. Then he turned to face the monsters who were growing bolder and about to attack.

A shroud of realization suddenly began to dawn upon her. When they were flying toward Unknown Space they had been talking about love. What had he said? "People can never forget those kinds of feelings, no matter how much you may want them too." That's what he had said. Who had he wanted to forget their feelings for another?

"Sol," she said. "Sol, you don't-" But he had already turned to towards the attacking monsters. Andromeda turned her back toward him and they fought as they had before.

When a monster caused Andromeda to jump backward they were both very aware of their backs pressed against each other.

* * *

Soon all was silent. Kathleen was the first to break it.

"It's okay," she said softly. "I forgive you."

"Really!" She said, with astonishment.

"Yes," replied Kathleen. "You did it for love."

"Did what for love?" came a voice from behind her. Heart sinking, Kathleen turned around.

It was the light blue luminary. New-Sirius.


	16. The Sound of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping and the vision that was planted in my brain still remains amid the sounds of silence – The Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel

* * *

Kathleen didn't move, didn't speak. This was very, very bad.

"Well," he began. "This is certainly interesting." His face was twisted into a mocking sneer. "Telling stories are we?"

Kathleen did not reply. She had no idea what to do: she was trapped.

New-Sirius seized her wrist in an iron grip. "We must see what she has to say about our little stories!" Kathleen tried to wrench herself out of his grip but he resisted without even trying. She tried to brace herself against being pulled down the corridor but lost her balance and he settled for dragging her along instead.

Suddenly, as he had reached the dead end of the hall the hall started to shake. New-Sirius seemed confused, he looked up and around to see what was the cause of it.

"STOP!" a voice suddenly boomed.

* * *

Polaris hacked away at the darkness around him, ignoring the roars of the monsters and desperately searching for a way out of the dog pile he had somehow found himself in. He didn't know where anyone was, he didn't even know where Alpha was and he had been by his side a split second ago.

Finally a dim light found its way to Polaris. He cut his way out toward the light and several corpses later found himself flying a bit away from the floor and surveying the whole scene, debating where to jump in next.

Sirius looked like he was doing fine, or as fine as anyone could be under the circumstances. He was killing them one after another as if it was all he had ever done in his life.

Andromeda and Sol were fighting back to back, keeping an eye on each other, which was good.

He could see Alpha's light blue form nowhere, and hoped he was fine, wherever he was.

Polaris saw a large number of monsters grouping together in the center of the room. Whatever they were planning, they wouldn't get to put their plan into motion.

Polaris dove down among them, cutting through darkness and silver eyes and swinging his axe every which way. The monsters began to gang up on him, and slowly formed a circle around him and above him. He very quickly realized that he was trapped.

In a last ditch effort, he formed a small fireball in his hands, wondering why he hadn't thought of fire before.

* * *

The shaking continued. Kathleen knew it was Her voice, but it was disguised beneath layers of horrible screeching and deep booming.

"Leave the girl alone!" She commanded. "She has done nothing wrong! I tricked her into coming to speak to me! Let her be!"

New-Sirius, upon realizing the cause of all the shaking, threw back his head and laughed.

"You tricked her into talking! I'll believe you have even that much power when I see it for myself! You wasted all your power in seeing what was going on outside, and I wouldn't be surprised if that little stunt you just pulled was the last trick you had left in you!" She was silent for a little while. When New-Sirius believed She would say no more, he continued to drag Kathleen down the hall, melting away the dead end with a wave of his hand.

"Wait," She said again, this time with desperation in her voice. "Please let her go! Let her go back to Sirius! What quarrel do you have with him? She has used him just as she uses you! He and this girl have done nothing to you, just leave them alone! You have me and all my power, what more do you want!" Her cry faded into the darkness, and as New-Sirius dragged her along she lost sight of the bit of wall that She was imprisoned behind.

* * *

Andromeda and Sol were beginning to feel the effect of so much fighting very heavily. Andromeda's katana felt like lead, and her dance-like fighting had become slow and off balance. Sol, who had lost much more energy than Andromeda had, felt like someone was sticking a sword in his side where the monster had bit him. Though Andromeda had made the bleeding stop, whatever was stopping the Zoi's from hurting the monsters was also sapping away their strength, and her Zoi had not taken away the pain of the wound as Zoi's usually do.

Andromeda saw out of the corner of her eye a monster headed for Sol. She swung around and plunged her blade into its eye, when all of a sudden a burst of white fire went off somewhere below her.

Twisting her blade as she looked down, she saw Polaris. He was cornered by a group of monsters and, by the looks of it, had just fried one of them on the spot.

"He's going to kill his energy that way!" Andromeda shouted to Sol as she pulled her katana out of the eye. "He'll be tired out in minutes if he keeps that up!"

Sol didn't reply, and when Andromeda turned she saw him forming a huge fireball of his own. As Andromeda stared, he flung it into a group of about 3 monsters. It crashed into one, went through it, and continued through another three or four monsters before dissipating into the air. The monsters that it had gone through were gone; it had burned them out of existence.

Sol turned toward Andromeda, grinning.

* * *

After dragging her up two flights of stairs he pushed open set of double doors at the end of the hall that led to an enormous room adorned in a very ornate style. The floor was supposed to resemble a polished marble floor but Kathleen saw that her legs dragging on the ground left peeled away the thin layer to revel the darkness beneath.

Companion was sitting in a high-backed chair in the middle of the room and the whole situation uncomfortably reminded Kathleen of an evil queen sitting atop her throne in some long-forgotten children's fairy tale. New-Sirius flung her down at his queen's feet and retreated a few steps, never taking his eyes off Companion.

Extremely unwilling to be groveling before Companion, Kathleen quickly righted herself and stood with her arms folded across her chest.

"What seems to be the trouble that you had to drag our guest here my sweet?" Companion's voice oozed into every corner of the room.

"I caught our guest talking to Her," he said.

Companion's face contorted for a moment, and then relaxed into passive pleasantness.

"Kathleen, you really shouldn't talk to the prisoner's of your hostess," she lectured, as if talking to a child. "Surely none of Sirius's guests ever talked to you while he kept you prisoner." She now wore an expression of pity.

"Oh to even think of that den of horrors that I rescued you from! That terrible luminary who killed your dog and caused all your life to be misery! I can't even bear to think of the further tortures he had in store had I not rescued you! That ugly, awful, cruel, heartless-"

"SHUTUP!" screamed Kathleen suddenly. Companion seemed honestly taken aback.

"I can't take any more! How dare you! _You_! Of all... Of all creatures! How dare you insult him! How dare you even mention his name in your poisoned presence! Him, terrible, heartless, cruel. That is what you are made of! You have no good fiber in your whole being! You are evil and hate and bitterness and spite! But he, he is everything that you are not! He is kind and brave and true! He is good and light and you are evil and darkness! You think that I am a stupid silly little earth girl? That I don't realize the things you plant in my head are false memories and dreams? I played along as long as I could but this is the end! You are hate! He is-" She broke off abruptly and stopped to catch her breath. She gave Companion a bitter smile and finished off with "And you, of course, are terribly ugly."

Companion, but for the initial shock and the last bit that had sent a strange twitch through her face, had listened to Kathleen's entire discourse with the same passive, pleasant look. She turned to New-Sirius.

"What were our former guest and our prisoner talking about, my sweet?"

"I'm sorry to say, that they were speaking about love," he replied.

Companion nodded in understanding.

"I see you now, little girl," she said, her face twisting and her voice shrill and bitter. "I see you for what you are now! You love him! Ha! How delicious that you who love him will be the cause of his death! You love him, and because of that you cannot be my ally." She lifted her arms and Kathleen saw that she had had that anti-Zoi thing sitting on her lap the whole time.

"But if you cannot be my ally, then you will be my pawn."

* * *

Sirius sliced off the head of another monster. He could hear something above him but he paid no attention to it. Three monsters were approaching him from the sides and the front. That noise was becoming very repetitive.

He drove his spear into the one on his left, and then flung the impaled monster up and over to crush the one on the right. He swung around and smashed the one in the front in the face with his left fist. He landed, and scanned the monster's ranks for the next attack.

Now the noise was louder. It was right in his ear. Then he recognized the noise.

"SIRIUS!"

Suddenly something touched his shoulder from behind. He rounded on it and his spear came within inches of Sol's face.

Sirius lowered his spear. His killing pattern was broken. Sol's eyes were wide and he was slightly pale.

"Sorry," mumbled Sirius.

"Oh don't worry, a death by your hand would be infinitely more honorable than to die by... by whatever these things happen to be," Sol replied sarcastically. "Now because we really-" here he swung his scythe into the leg of an oncoming monster, "-don't have time to talk, we should probably get up to Polaris and Andromeda."

Sol jerked his head upward and glided up through the darkness, Sirius following close behind.

Andromeda and Polaris were hovering near the top of the chamber, eyeing the monster's beneath them warily.

"It's fire Sirius," said Sol. "Fire's the only thing that stops them. But using all our fire individually to kill this many would probably kill us."

"So then we combine it," concluded Sirius. "Where's Alpha?"

Polaris shrugged. "I honestly have no idea, but we have to take care of these things first."

Polaris, Sol, Andromeda, and Sirius stood together in a rough outline of a circle with their backs to the monsters. Slowly, they immersed themselves in fire.

* * *

Kathleen was hit with a shock of pain that sent her reeling backwards. She lost her balance and hit the floor hard. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was Companion whispering in her ear.

"And besides. You would have died soon. The blink of an eye to us. Then he would have forgotten about you. I'm saving you a lot of drawn out pain this way. This way it will all be over soon." In her mind's eye Kathleen could see her horrible grin.

That was the last thing she thought. Then she surrendered to the pain.

* * *

The fireball in the center of the circle sparkled with green, pink, orange, and white light. Fed by all their fires, it quickly grew to fill the circle, and then it absorbed them into itself. It was a little bigger than the circle now. They could hear the monsters outside the fire roaring in pain and frustration. The color combination of the fire cast strange glows over the monster and the tunnel.

The fire was pleasantly warm. They all looked at each other and nodded. Polaris was the last to consent.

Suddenly the fireball exploded in all directions. The green, pink, orange, and white light surged forward, burning everything in its path, filling the tunnel as far as they could see, and becoming brighter and brighter so that even they had to close their eyes against it.

When they deemed it safe to open them, it was all over.

The monsters left no trace. The tunnel was back to exactly the way it had been before the monster came. No tendrils burst from the wall, no monster's rose from the floor or fell from the ceiling. Even the weird light the darkness gave off seemed to be comforting, and peaceful somehow.

And the thing they noticed most was the silence.

After so much shouting, screaming, roaring, and shouting, the sudden silence seemed... wrong. Oppressive. Each one of them was unwilling to break it.

Slowly they floated down to the floor and landed at the same time. Sirius was already looking down the tunnel to see what more lay ahead of them. Polaris looked back to see if Alpha had survived the blast. Sol had thrown away his scythe to flop down on the floor and stare up at the ceiling and Andromeda stood between the green and orange luminaries.

* * *

It was black and dark and cold. All around her were screams. Terrible screams. They were screaming in pain, being tortured in ways that she didn't dare to imagine. She covered her ears to try and make the screams stop but they just got louder. So instead she started running. She was running in one direction as fast and as far as she could go away from the screams, but she couldn't escape them.

They were everywhere.

* * *

Sol had adjusted his head so now he was staring at the wall. For a few minutes he had been watching a patch of light on the wall grow steadily brighter without noticing it. It was only when it was actually glowing did he actually recognize it.

Slowly he got up and walked over to the wall.

"Hey," he said. Everyone seemed to come back to themselves. Sol's word had broken the silence.

"Hey," he said again. "What's this?"

Three fiery heads turned in his direction. Sirius, then Andromeda and Polaris walked over to where he stood, and stared at the wall, mystified.

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Polaris suddenly, and with his axe he cut a deep gash in the glowing wall.

At first the light coming from the opening was to bright. They heard a thump.

When they opened their eyes Alpha was lying facedown on the floor, and he wasn't moving.


	17. Seperate Ways

Though we touched and went our separate way. Troubled times caught between confusion and pain, distant eyes, Promises we made were in vain. If you must go, I wish you love. You'll never walk alone Take care my love– Separate Ways - Journey

* * *

"A-Alpha?" Andromeda ventured shakily. Polaris was too stunned to say anything.

Much to everyone's immediate relief, Alpha groaned. He managed to roll over and prop himself up on his elbow.

"Well, that was fun..." he mumbled.

"W- W - What happened to you!" cried Polaris. "How did you m-m-manage to get yourself inside the w-wall!"

"I got pulled in!" he replied. Then he started to laugh. "I stopped whatever was pulling me in but I couldn't find my way out again! And then I tried burning my way through, and that seemed to work a bit, but I got very tired doing it, which is why you all thought I was a goner when I came out. Didn't you wonder where I was?"

"Well of course we did but we couldn't exactly do much about it!" said Sol.

"How did you all manage to kill those things?" the light blue luminary asked.

"It w-was f-fire, Alpha," said Polaris.

"Well, it was silly of us not to think of it before, wasn't it?" replied Alpha. He shakily got to his feet.

"Are we all ready to go now?" Everyone looked toward Sirius, who was staring at them expectantly.

"Sirius," said Andromeda, pointing at his face, where a long gash was dripping green liquid. Sirius put his fingers to it as if he was noticing it for the first time.

"Here, let me," she said. She untied her Zoi from around her waist and held it to his face.

Nothing happened.

* * *

At first Andromeda looked confused, then alarmed. Sirius took Andromeda's hand away from his face. He saw a small cut on her left hand and tried to heal it using his Zoi, but with the same result.

"They were weak before," said Sol. "When I got bit. It healed the wound but not the pain. When that scorpion attacked me on the outside the Zoi took away the pain too.

Everyone looked around. They were more suspicious, more paranoid, of the tunnel and its strange glowing walls, which were glowing much less than before the assault. Looking back toward where they had come from they saw that the darkness had barricaded the way back. They were trapped now; they had to go forward. And for a luminary, who had never known a power greater than a Zoi, knowing that they were going toward something that was, was not something to look forward to. On top of all that, their Zoi's were no longer working.

They were flying blind now, and they all knew it.

"Come on everyone," said Sirius. "There's no sense in staying here, and I don't want to know what might find us if we stay here to long."

Sirius started back down the tunnel. He was quickly followed by Alpha and Polaris, and Andromeda, who had dropped back, walked next to Sol at the rear.

They had lost track of the time. They could have been walking for a few hours or an entire day and night might have already passed. They had not spoken since they left the sight of their battle, and there was no sound but the muffled footfalls of the five luminaries.

But somewhere during this time, the environment of the tunnel shifted. Prior, it had simply followed a straight, level path, but now it dipped and twisted. There were small hills and valleys, and sharp turns and gentle curves, and it was all driving Sirius mad.

He wanted to get wherever she was now. He wanted to rescue her and kill the white creature and her light blue consort once and for all. Every hill whose summit led only to more darkness, every curve which ended the same was trying his patience to the last nerve. It was only the knowledge that if he started running or flying he would be tired for the inevitable battle that was going to ensue that kept him from rushing down the tunnel at top speed. He was no use to Kathleen dead.

* * *

When it seemed that everyone was going to lose their sanity out of so much monotony, they came upon an intersection.

It was a fork. Their one path broke into four paths, all looking exactly the same and, as far as they were concerned, all equally likely to lead them where they were going.

Sirius turned to face the group.

"You all probably aren't going to like what I'm about to say-"

"Forget it Sirius," said Alpha. "We know we have to split up." He pointed at the far left tunnel. "I'll take that one," he started toward it.

Polaris took the middle right, and Sirius took the far right, which left Andromeda and Sol to take the middle left.

"Good luck everyone," said Sirius. Then he plunged into the darkness alone.

* * *

Being alone was strange. The knowledge that something could attack him, kill him even, and the others wouldn't know, unnerved him. Alone, his footsteps seemed to echo louder against the empty walls.

And what if this path wound up a dead end? He would have go all the way back, and chose another path to take, all the while knowing nothing of how the others were, if they were alive or dead, or lying wounded somewhere hoping that someone would come and save them. He strained his ears, but he heard nothing except the sounds of his own footsteps.

On an impulse, he rounded on the left wall and shot a fireball at it. The green light brightly illuminated the tunnel for a moment, but when it died he saw the wall had been unaffected. Not even fire was working now.

* * *

He hurried down the tunnel. Laughing to himself he came to another intersection and turned right. Yes, this was the way. He remembered now. It hadn't been that long, after all.

Mildly he wondered which one he would meet first. He hoped it would be Sirius, how wonderful that would be! She would reward him greatly then.

But she would reward him either way, whoever he stopped from coming further.

* * *

Sol and Andromeda had walked in silence since they had separated from the others. Sol would occasionally chance a glance at Andromeda, as if to say something, and then averted his eyes back to the path ahead. She noticed this gesture, and though she wanted to say something to him, she found she couldn't.

Eventually they both stopped trying and settled into the silence.

"At least we are together," thought Andromeda, shuddering to think of the crushing aloneness of Sirius and Polaris and Alpha.

But as she thought these words she cursed herself. A few minutes after, they came upon another fork, spilt into two paths.

Andromeda sighed.

"I suppose we should separate," she said dismally.

"Yes," Sol replied with equal enthusiasm. But as they started down, Andromeda taking the left and Sol the right, he stopped.

"Andromeda," he began. "Andromeda... I case we don't... I mean..."

She shook her head.

"Don't Sol," she said. "Anything you have to say to me you can tell me afterward. When we're all alive and well and out of this hell hole." Sol nodded resignedly. "Don't worry," she said smiling. "I think I will have some things to say to you as well." Sol stopped nodding and grinned back at her.

"Till we meet again then," he said.

"When we meet again," she replied. Then they separated.

* * *

In her small cell, She was in torment. Companion had done something horrible to Kathleen, and she was hopeless to do anything about it! In vain she had balled up her fists and tried to break down the walls of her cell once more, but it had never worked before, so why should this time be any different?

She couldn't hear Kathleen's light footsteps anymore. Her jailers weren't talking; everything was silent save for the roars of the monsters below her.

She thought of the first Sirius. He had been born shortly after she had appeared in the universe. He had been all passion and fire.

But his passion and fire hadn't been enough. He was young when it happened. A monster had broken out and She and He hadn't been fast enough to stop it. The young green luminary had been killed.

His sphere hadn't been destroyed, miraculously. She didn't know how many years it had laid vacant. She had been in Unknown space at the time.

It had been a rather long time, for this Sirius was only several thousand years older than the first had been when he died.

She hoped that he had more in him than passion and fire. She hoped he had skill and sense as well. Because, right now, he was their only hope, both hers and Kathleen's.

With a pang, she wondered if He would do the same for her, if he could. Did he still love her? Did he... Did he even remember?

* * *

Andromeda was alone now, and wishing she wasn't. It had been a while since she had left Sol, and she wondered how he was faring.

The path was changing again. It was steadily leading down.

Before long it opened up into a bigger chamber than the one they had fought the monsters in. It was circular, and had tunnels all around its perimeter. She had no idea which one to take this time. There was only one of her.

Instead she decided to wait here a little while. One of the others might emerge from the tunnels, perhaps they would all be reunited here.

She didn't wait long. Soon a light blue glimmer shone down one of the paths. In a few moments Alpha appeared, following his own light. She saw he had daggers in both hands.

"Hello," she said relieved at his appearance. "How was it?"

"Oh fine," he said, smiling. She pointed at his daggers.

"Did you have to kill something on the way?"

He laughed and walked closer to her.

"No," he said twirling the dagger in his left hand. Its bright blade reflected the pink and light blue light of the two luminaries, and sent the colors darting about the chamber. "I haven't killed anything. Yet." He laughed again, and stopped twirling the dagger.

Then he plunged its gleaming blade into Andromeda's chest.


	18. She's Gone

She's gone, She's gone, She's gone. I'm telling you she's gone. Like a shadow in the dark, like a ripple on a stream, I see her float across my mind like a picture in a dream. And the more that I know, seems the more that I care. Give the world and all I own just to know that she's still there – She's Gone – Eric Clapton

* * *

She screamed. A long, loud, deafening scream. Blood poured out of the wound and down her front. Alpha's arm was covered in the pink liquid.

She stared at him with a look of shock and horror, as she slowly backed away from him.

"Why..." she murmured.

"Be quiet!" said Alpha, his voice full of mirth. Then he pulled his fist back and punched her across the mouth. Normally this would have done nothing to her, but in her current state it caused her to completely turn around with the force of his punch. As she did so she made a motion and suddenly her katana appeared in her hands.

Off balance, she turned and swung it in a wide arc that should have cut him in half, but he threw a dagger at it as it passed him and changed its path, missing him by a mile.

Andromeda quickly tried to compensate, and pulled her katana up and around. Alpha barely managed to dodge the strike, even so a large gash opened up in his right arm.

"You do fight well," Alpha commented as he blocked another blow with crossed daggers. "Too bad really, that you're on the wrong side!"

With deadly accuracy, Alpha threw two daggers at her grip on the katana, shattering her already shaking hold. She turned to the side with the aftershock of the hit, and her katana clattered to the floor. Weakly she tried taking to the air, but she didn't get more than a few feet of the ground. With her back exposed to him, Alpha, still laughing, threw three more daggers into her back and one in her side. She screamed again, and then, gasping, she came crashing to the ground. She groped for her katana but he was closer to it, and kicked it out of her reach.

Not prepared to give up yet, she reached for his ankles, to bring him down somehow. She grabbed his right one, dug her nails into it, and yanked. He jumped, into the air, flapping his wings to keep aloft while he twisted his ankle out of her grasp. He finally wrenched free, and Andromeda was satisfied for a moment at the long bleeding gashes her nails had left in him.

Coldly he imbedded two more daggers in her stomach. She wanted to scream again but found she didn't have the strength to. The more she tried to hold onto her energy the more it slipped away from her, and she grew weaker and weaker until all she could do was turn her head toward him and stare at him, her eyes full of confusion and hatred and sadness.

He landed and walked to her, intending to finish the deed with a dagger in her throat. Perhaps he would take her head back to his lady. But he heard shouting coming from three tunnels, and knew he shouldn't linger. Though he could take any of them down in a sneak attack, he was no match for Sirius or even Sol if they were on their guard. He wasn't worried about her. She was bleeding too much. And the Zoi's weren't working. No matter what they did, she was going to die anyway.

He noticed her sad stare at him, and he grinned at her.

"It is a present from my lady Companion." He bowed to her in mockery, and as he did so he heard someone very close to the chamber shouting.

So he turned and fled down another tunnel, this one leading him lower into the depths of Unknown Space.

He was still laughing.

* * *

Polaris heard the screams. They were coming from up ahead, so he had taken to his wings and flown down the path. But whatever he had conjured in his mind, it was nothing compared to the scene that now met his eyes.

Sol was kneeling on the floor, cradling Andromeda in his arms. Neither one of them was saying anything. There was an enormous pool of pink blood around them; the ends of Sol's wings were coated in it. Daggers were scattered about the room, like pieces of trash. They too, were covered in blood.

The sight of them made his blood run cold. They were light blue, with a slight curve to the hilt. He would recognize them anywhere.

"A-Alpha?" he murmured.

Sol looked up at him. "Yes," he said softly. He nodded toward a trail of blood drops leading down a passage. "He went that way."

Polaris felt lost for a few moments. Then, taking a deep breath, he began to run down the tunnel Sol had indicated.

"And Polaris," Sol called after him. Polaris held up for a moment. "Don't kill him until I get there."

* * *

Sol glanced after him. He wondered what Polaris was going to do.

At first her screams had horrified him. Somewhere Andromeda was being hurt and he could do nothing to stop it! He hadn't even known where she was. He had just kept running ahead, blindly. The second scream cut through him like the daggers that had cut through her.

But he had been too late. He had failed her. Alpha was gone; she was there in a pool of blood.

So he had knelt down beside her, taken her in his arms, and pulled the daggers out, one by one. For an instant he had grabbed her Zoi, but then she had opened her eyes.

"It won't work Sol," she said. "They don't work here. You can have it from now on. I'm not ever going to need it anymore. With shaking hands, she pulled it off her waist and handed it to him. He took it from her only to place it beside her.

"Of course you're going to need it. You're going to need it when we all get back outside."

"I'm sorry Sol... I'm sorry I can't go with you the rest of the way..."

"Come on now Andromeda," he said quietly. "Don't talk like that. Everything will be fine, I promise. I'll make it all right, somehow. We'll all be out of here in no time." He hadn't said anything after that.

Then Polaris had appeared. He had sent him down after Alpha without knowing what Polaris intended to do. He didn't care really, as long as he didn't kill Alpha. Sol considered that privilege his alone.

"Sol," she said. Her voice was barely a whisper. "Sol, I think I have to tell you what I was going to say before. I know I said I would tell you when we got out... but I just don't think I'm going..."

"You don't have to-" he began. Suddenly there was a burst of green light, and Sirius appeared out of a tunnel.

* * *

Sirius felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He took the scene in all at once, putting together for himself what had happened. He didn't know where Polaris was, and he didn't know why it had happened.

He sunk down beside Andromeda on her other side.

"Good," she said. "I didn't think you would make it. I have to say something to you too." It hurt both of them to hear her talk like this. She was so strong, why should her voice be so weak? She could pull through this, couldn't she?

But through the weakness in her voice, her face bore a sad smile.

She took a deep breath and looked at Sirius.

"I'm sorry Sirius," she said, with remorse in her voice. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I loved you a little bit."

Sirius' eyes widened in surprise. "Andromeda I-" he began, but she shook her head as well as she was able.

"I was wrong Sirius. I was wrong to even think I could ever come between you and Kathleen." She dropped her eyes, and then turned them toward Sol.

"I should have loved someone who could love me back."

Sol suddenly had a strange feeling in his chest. It was a little while before he realized that it was his heart, and it was aching.

Her smile suddenly retracted and she winced in pain. Her color began to dull. Sol gave a start, but her eyes slowly opened again and she shook her head.

"I think I'm going now," she said, her smile back in place. "You have to keep going. Please don't think about me. You have to save her. I know you will do it. Somehow."

"No!" cried Sol suddenly, his voice cracking, his eyes misty. "You don't have to go. You can stay... I'll carry you back... the Zoi's will work outside... You'll be okay!" He paused for a moment. "Please don't go Andromeda. Please." The tears that had been brimming in his eyes finally spilled over.

She reached up toward him cupped his cheek in her hand. With her thumb she wiped away the tear traveling down it. He covered her hand with his. His heart ached at how cold it seemed.

"I'm sorry Sol."

He moved in and kissed her lips. But as he did, they suddenly grew cold. Her hand went limp. Her color that had been growing duller every minute finally went out.

Andromeda was gone.

* * *

Sol pulled away from her, and set her hand down beside her. Then he gently laid her body on the ground. He looked at her for a few moments and then got up suddenly and walked a few steps toward the tunnel Polaris had disappeared into. His head was down, and even through the thick mane of hair Sirius knew that a few more tears were sliding down his cheeks.

Sirius looked at her. Kathleen had once called the luminaries angels. She had said it was because of the wings, they looked like pictures they had on earth of things called angels. She said that angels were fantasy creatures, who were filled with goodness and kindness, and that in the stories about them would always help people who were in trouble.

Looking at Andromeda as she lay there, her double wings lying at length, coated and sticky with her blood, he knew that if any luminaries were ever deserving of the title of angel, it was her.

He wished she had told him before. Even though he could never be anything more than a friend to her, he still wished she had told him. Because he could tell her that he could never love her as more than a friend. He would have told her that so she could be free to find someone who loved her back. He glanced for a moment at the back of the orange luminary.

With a heavy heart, he kissed Andromeda's forehead, then stood up.

"Goodbye Andromeda."

* * *

Polaris' footsteps pounded down the corridor, his mind in turmoil. His best friend had just committed murder! Something was wrong, this couldn't happen!

His best friend, who he had known for... for longer than he could remember! He couldn't be a murderer, it just wasn't possible!

Was it? Polaris suddenly didn't know what to think anymore.

Suddenly a faint blue glimmer showed itself around a bend in the tunnel. Of course! Here he was! Alpha would surely have some explanation; maybe they had all been wrong! Perhaps it wasn't him after all!

But his hopes came crashing down when he rounded the bend and found Alpha leaning lazily up against the wall. A grin was still plastered on his face, and pink blood covered his left arm. Polaris suddenly had the urge to slice that grin off his face.

"Hello Polaris," Alpha began leisurely. "I see you've come to get me. Or have you, my old friend?" He turned toward him pleasantly.

"A-A-Alpha! T-t-this... T-t-this is all w-w-wrong r-r-r-right? S-s-surely t-t-there m-must be s-s-some m-m-mistake!" Polaris' stammering was increased tenfold in his agitated state.

"No old friend," replied Alpha, still pleasant as ever. "There is no mistake. I am your near and dear friend of the ages, and it is that silly girl's blood that covers my arm, and that I seemed to have dripped all the way here."

Polaris was floored. How could this be Alpha?

"Of course, the same and more is in store for those other two fools, who are right now, I assume, weeping over her dead and cold body. My lady will not permit them to die as quickly as she went."

"W-w-why A-Alpha?" said Polaris despairingly. "W-why a-are you doing this?" Alpha stared him straight in the eye.

"Because my lady has powers beyond the wildest dreams of anyone on the outside! She appeared to me one day, and to think I almost denounced her and ordered her out!" He shuddered at the thought. "She brought with her the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, though I certainly didn't think that at the time! But she forced me to touch it, just to graze it with my fingers, and how grateful am I to her that I did! It is beautiful! I was powerful, I could take on the universe!" The brightness in his eyes increased.

"Because you are my one and only real friend, Polaris, I am making you an offer. You can join my lady! We can have all the power we've ever wanted! She's the only one who will win this battle, you know that don't you? If you stay with those fools who knows what will happen to you! Stay with me, and you and I will be greater than anyone." He let out a small laugh. "And no one will make fun of your stammer anymore my friend. So what do you think?"

Polaris thought for a moment.

"What is this powerful thing you speak of?" he finally asked. Alpha's eyes lit up.

"Ah! My lady calls it the Anti-Zoi, because it is everything a Zoi isn't! It is powerful and strong where the Zoi is feeble and weak! It changes your life my friend! Once you touch it, one you hold its power in your hands, you will never, ever be the same again!"

Polaris smiled.

"Very well old friend. I chose your side."

* * *

A/N: Oh dear, it has been a long time since I spoke to anyone, hasn't it? I really shouldn't be such a hermit.

Well everyone, this is it. I hope you all stay with me to the end. Rest assured, we're all in for a lot more surprises...

Drop me a line to tell me what you think of all the new developments, if you feel so inclined. If not, just sit back and enjoy the rest of our rather bumpy ride...


	19. The Show Must Go On

Another hero, another mindless crime. Behind the curtain, in the pantomime. Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore? The show must go on! The show must go on! Inside my heart is breaking, my makeup may be flaking but my smile still stays on – The Show Must Go On – Queen

* * *

Alpha smiled.

"Excellent!" he cried. "We'll have to hurry to the palace, she'll be wondering where I am!"

Alpha beckoned to him and Polaris followed him down the passage.

"Alpha," Polaris began. "How long were you pretending?"

"Ah I was hoping you would ask that! How wonderful it was to finally show my true colors! It hasn't really been a very long while, not to us anyway. I'd say it started several months before Sirius brought that earth-brat here."

"And all that time, the monsters, the Initomi..." realization suddenly dawned on Polaris' face. "So that's why Rigel acted so strange that day we went to Sirius' sphere! You had ordered him to take Kathleen away; you hadn't removed him from his duties at all!"

"Yes," replied Alpha. "Rigel was the only one of the Initomi in on my little plot. He and I were enough to make sure that not one of the units was available if Sirius or his little friends got attacked! I'm just sorry I couldn't have done more for my lady, and given her the heads of all three of them!"

"Well I'm sure our lady will be pleased at the damage we will cause them all in the future."

Alpha nodded.

"The palace isn't that far now. My lady showed me the whole plan of Unknown Space a few months ago, so I would be able to join her as quickly as possible!"

"But Alpha, if she was expecting you, then why were the tunnel monsters attacking you as well?"

Here Alpha's face fell a bit.

"I'm sure my lady cannot control all her monsters..." he mumbled. Then his face brightened. "But one of them offered refuge to me inside the wall! I was perfectly safe there; I only had to figure a way out for myself."

Polaris didn't reply.

* * *

As Sirius was about to get up, he noticed something orange on the floor next to Andromeda's other side. He picked it up and saw that it was her Zoi.

"Sol?" He turned toward the orange luminary. Sol remained silent, and the fire that burned around him was so dim that the only reason it could be seen was the darkness of the tunnel. Sirius stood up, and with one last look at Andromeda, he walked over to Sol.

"She gave this to you, didn't she?" he asked, standing in front of Sol and holding out the Zoi. Sol looked up.

Sirius was shocked at the expression on Sol's face. The light in his eyes was gone. The grin he always had hiding somewhere on his lips was gone, and the fire around him had started to flicker.

Sol looked so unlike himself that if Sirius was not completely certain it was indeed his friend he wouldn't have believed it. A strange realization came to him, and he realized that if he had seen Sol like this when he found that Companion had taken Kathleen, he would have been looking into a mirror.

"Yes," he replied, his voice empty and distant.

"Then why don't you take it?"

Sol looked away for a moment. "She doesn't need it anymore, does she?" he said softly.

"No Sol. She doesn't need it anymore."

With a trembling hand Sol took the Zoi from Sirius. It hadn't changed yet, and still remained the blanket Andromeda had worn around her waist.

"I don't know how to use it," he said.

"Well that doesn't matter much," replied Sirius. "We can't use them here anyway." Sol nodded.

But as he did the Zoi began to change. What had been a flat blanket suddenly shrunk, and gained dimensions. It was turning into a pendant some sort, but the shape was still abstract.

But within a few moments, the change was complete. A pendant, the width of Sol's hand lay in his palm. It was in the shape of a bird of some kind, and the bird had its wings out to their full length, as if it were rising. A chain began and ended at the head, and Sirius supposed it was meant to be worn around the neck.

But it did not have normal wings. Instead of ending in feathers, the wings and tail ended in what looked to Sirius like small spouts of flame.

"Sol," he began, confused. "What kind of bird..." But he stopped when he saw the look in Sol's eyes.

The light in them had returned, but instead of a glint of joy, it was now a fire, much like the look in Sirius' own eyes. The grin had returned but there was now something bitter and cynical about it, a bitterness that had never been there before. His fire roared up around him.

"It's a phoenix Sirius," he said calmly. "A phoenix..."

Though Sirius wasn't entirely sure what a phoenix was, he knew it had something to do with fire and loyalty and rebirth.

"Sirius?"

"Yes Sol?"

"Let's keep going now. I have to go kill Alpha."

* * *

Alpha turned back toward Polaris.

"We're almost there. It's just after that last bend up there, and then we'll have all the power we've ever dreamed of. Her revenge is just the beginning you see. When my lady destroys them, she'll have two Zois _and_ the Anti-Zoi plus the monsters all at her disposal! She'll have the universe at her feet within the year! He will be no match for her, and she will crush Him just as she had crushed Her!"

There were muffled roars up ahead, which Polaris could only guess were coming from the monsters that Companion had been sending to the outside world.

"All the power They ever had is going to be nothing to what we will wield!" Alpha's eyes clouded over at the thought of it, and he turned back around and staid no more to Polaris, his eyes fixed straight ahead.

Polaris followed him silently, wondering what would happen when Sirius and Sol showed up.

* * *

The green and orange luminaries were in fact hurrying down the passage, following the trail of pink blood that Alpha had left behind. Sirius was hoping they met up with them before Alpha reached wherever Companion was. And where was Polaris?

"Sol, what happened to Polaris?" he asked as they ran around a corner.

"I don't know," replied Sol. Suddenly he took to his wings. Sirius followed suit and they now glided down the tunnel at three times the pace they had been running.

"He showed up before you did," Sol continued. "I guess he followed the blood. I didn't see him after that."

Sirius knew that if Polaris met up with Alpha, he would have been killed or he would have joined him. If he had joined, Sirius wasn't worried. It was just something else he had to kill on his way to rescue Kathleen.

They were almost at the bend in the tunnel. She was waiting just on the other side of the bend. There would be nothing to worry about then. She would kill Sirius and Sol, like Alpha said, and then she would have the Zoi of Sirius and Andromeda's spheres, virtually owning two of the most powerful spheres in the universe. Alpha was probably right. The universe would be bowing down to her within the year.

Alpha was walking ahead of him, his eyes fixed on the bend in the road, eager to see the palace and salvation. If they go to the bend, everything would change.

Silently, Polaris' battle axe appeared in his hand.

"I'm s-sorry old f-friend," he whispered to himself. Slowly, and with some hesitation, he raised the axe above his head. But his hands trembled. For a moment he almost lowered his arms.

Suddenly he set his face and tightened his grip. Alpha stopped for a moment and he set his feet the instant before Alpha turned around.

And he swung.

* * *

They arrived just in time to see Polaris set his feet and swing. But the blow that should have struck Alpha in the back of the head and killed him struck only emptiness. Alpha had danced out of the way at the last second, hatred seared on his face.

"Then you, my friend, would betray me too?" he screamed. "You, who I was going to share my power with, was going to stab me in the back, so near to my sanctuary? We could have shared the power!" Daggers appeared in his hands. "We could have shared, but now it will only be _mine_!"

Sirius and Sol were already flying towards them when Alpha threw the two daggers. Polaris managed to dodge one and deflect the other, but they knew he couldn't keep that up for long.

"ALPHA!" shouted Sol. The tunnel was deadly silent for a moment.

Alpha turned toward Sol with a small little smile on his face.

"Come to avenge her death? The death of that silly little nothing who shouldn't have been entrusted with a Zoi if she didn't know how to use it in the first place!"

Sol dropped to the ground and walked toward him. Sirius dropped to the ground and dropped back, and indicated for Polaris to do the same. This was Sol's fight.

Sol's scythe appeared in his hands as he walked toward the blue luminary. Alpha didn't look worried.

All of a sudden Alpha took to his wings, flinging daggers as fast as he could toward Sol. He dodged a few, and deflected some with his scythe, but two embedded themselves into his shoulder and arm.

But Sol didn't seem to notice them. He flew toward Alpha before he could muster up another attack and slammed the staff of his weapon into Alpha side, sending him flying into the wall.

Alpha coughed and dark blue blood came up.

"She'll hear you!" he declared. "She'll come! My lady would not abandon me!" He flung another dagger at Sol and pushed off the wall, trying to kick Sol in the air, but Sol twisted himself away and brought the end of the staff down onto Alpha's back. Alpha made a small cry of pain and tumbled in the air.

"Are you kidding Alpha?" Sirius shouted at him as Alpha regained his balance. "She's using you as the means to an end! She's going to kill you when she has no more use for her!"

"BE QUIET!" Alpha screamed back, his eyes on Sol as the orange luminary circled him, waiting for an opening. "My lady would never do that! She promised me! Power!" He threw two more daggers at Sol, but they flew slower and Sol caught one of them.

"You're losing it Alpha," he said quietly. "You're tired from the fight with the monster, and you're tired from fighting me already."

"I am not!" he shrieked, and to prove it, tried to dive at Sol and stab him in the neck. Sol calmly jumped back, and caught Alpha's with a strength the blue luminary didn't know he possessed. Then he kicked Alpha away from him and while the blue luminary flew toward the wall Sol followed him, and when he got to them wall Sol grabbed a chuck of his light blue hair and smashed his head into the wall. Dazed and disoriented, Alpha fell down to the ground. Sol landed and the blue luminary scrambled to his feet and backed against the wall. Sol took the dagger he had caught and threw it at him. The dagger hit‏‏‏‏ Alpha's arm and stuck there.

Alpha hesitatingly formed two more daggers in his hands.

"Forget it Alpha," said Sol as stepped closer, scythe raised. "You're dead."

"Old fashioned type are you then?" said Alpha with a sneer. "Take a life for a life and all that?"

"Your death a million times over would not even begin to repay that which you have taken." Sol's eyes burned as he stared into Alpha's defiant face. Then he swung his scythe across Alpha's throat, and it was all over in that one fluid motion. There was a smattering of light and blue blood flew everywhere. The daggers in Alpha's hands disappeared, as did the one in Sol's shoulder and arm, and Alpha's lifeless body slid to the floor, blood pouring out of its neck.

Sol turned to Sirius.

"I'm done Sirius," he said.

Polaris turned to Alpha's body.

"I will destroy the thing that turned you into a monster... I don't even know how... But I will! It won't change anyone into something evil ever again! I won't let this happen again... I... I promise..."

Polaris turned back to the two others.

"Let's go." They started down the path together.

* * *

When a sufficient distance had been put between them and Alpha's body, Sirius turned to Polaris.

"Polaris... I can't help asking, but why didn't you stutter when you made your promise to him?" Polaris turned toward him with a half-smile.

"Sirius," he began, without reproach. "I have just aided in the murder of my best friend. Do you think a little thing like speaking is going to be any trouble for me any longer?"

Sirius didn't reply, but he honestly couldn't see how it would.


	20. I Can See for Miles

I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise, I know that you have 'cause there's magic in my eyes. I can see for miles and miles – The Who

* * *

Suddenly the palace loomed up before them. Several towers of immaculate, snow white rose against the black background of Unknown space. The towers were connected by a square keep and all was shielded by thick wall that seemed to be made of the same white stone as the towers and keep. The keep and towers has small windows set high into the buildings, so that anything going on inside was impossible to see from anywhere on the outside. Kathleen was locked up somewhere in that ivory eyesore. He immediately took to his wings and hovered a few feet above the ground. That's when he noticed what spanned the space between him and the place. And it made him even angrier.

Before the palace was a long lawn of green grass, trees, and flowers. Gardens. Like his garden. That was where everything started. It was where Companion had first betrayed him, all those years ago. It was where Kathleen had finally started to care about him. And it was where Companion had stolen Kathleen from him. It was where everything began.

"And this is where it will all end," he said quietly to himself. Sol, standing next to him, didn't hear him.

* * *

Sol didn't really see much of the palace or the grounds. He was still somewhat inside his own mind. Her face, dotted with flecks of pink and light blue blood remained fixated in his mind. He heard her saying "I'm sorry, Sol," over and over again. One hand clasped the necklace at his throat.

Her Zoi. Her Zoi that she would never use again. He would never see her again.

But neither Sirius nor Sol had much time to give to their thoughts. There was a buzzing in the air that soon became a whispering, then very quickly a scream, and then a roar.

It was the monsters.

* * *

"They have come my lady."

Companion's pale eyes flashed up at the light blue figure in the doorway. She shifted her place in her throne so that she was facing him.

"Where is my spy?" she asked, irritated that Alpha had not shown up before them as instructed.

"It seems they discovered his betrayal, and they did away with him." New-Sirius cringed before the shouting he assumed he was about to endure.

Instead Companion regarded him coolly.

"They have saved me the trouble of doing it myself. Did do what he was told? Did he kill any of them like he was supposed to?"

"They have lost one," he replied. "The pink one, Andromeda, is gone. Sol now bears her Zoi." The pearly luminary grinned.

"Ha ha! One down! Alpha served his purpose after all!" She stood up and began to walk toward the doors.

"I want to go watch my monsters rip their bodies to shreds! Then only Sirius will be left and - Oh!" She suddenly turned back toward her throne and raised the black thing above her head.

"I don't want to forget my new toy!" The thing sent out a pulse through the room.

Slowly, shaking, something crept out from behind the blood red throne.

* * *

Sirius took to the air just in time. The ground suddenly began to violently shake, spilling Sol and Polaris to the ground. Sirius sprang out of his garden reminisces and tightened his grip on his spear and shield. Polaris, slowly, surely, got up from the ground and braced himself against the earthquake.

Then the roar reached its height, and all of a sudden scores of colors were bursting out of the ground, screaming and growling. The colors soon formed themselves into what they were.

Most of them Sirius had never seen before. They crowd of them almost completely covered the lawn. They were in all shapes and sizes and forms. Some took to their own wings as Sirius hovered above the ground and others wriggled in the dirt like snakes.

With a quick look downward, Sirius saw that Sol still had not gotten up. Still hovering in the air, he bent down and grabbed Sol's arm. Sol started as if he had been shaken from sleep.

"Come on Sol," said Sirius. "We've got to worry about what's ahead."

Sol stared at the monsters on the lawn. Then he nodded and pulled himself up off the ground. The monsters remained gathered together, not yet approaching the luminaries.

Staring down their adversary, Sol suddenly grinned. He looked from Polaris to Sirius and then back toward the monsters.

"Good luck gentlemen."

* * *

The first wave to suddenly spring into action was the fliers. Sol and Polaris jumped into the air and all three of them took off in different directions.

The eyes. Sirius knew he had to go for the eyes, the silvery, dead looking eyes that most of the monsters had. He was being attacked by seven monsters simultaneously, all of different colors and shapes and darting out at him with what seemed like thirty different limbs. One of them that looked something like a bat got inside Sirius' defenses and cut him across his back with a pair of razor sharp wings. Sirius winced for a moment and whirled around and cut one of the wings off with the sharp side of his spear. The bat struggled to keep itself aloft with only one wing flapping desperately, and succeeded in plummeting to the ground in small crazy circles, screeching all the while.

Every time he cut a monster down another came to take its place. But as he cut at their limbs and slashed at their eyes, Sirius began to notice something. Not only were these monsters much smaller than the ones he had fought outside, but they were weaker as well. Outside a monster would keep fighting no matter how many cuts it had, but here all Sirius had to do was lop off a claw or a wing and it would send the monster flying away in pain or rage.

And that was another thing. The only monsters that could fly here were the ones with wings, the others ran along the lawn snapping at Sirius' feet or crawling on the ground. Outside they could all fly, whether they had wings or not.

They were limited here in Unknown Space.

* * *

Sol cringed, and his arm began dripping orange blood from four long parallel cuts. Swinging himself around, he severed the offending clawed hand, sending the monster it belonged to into a fit of squawking.

And as he turned he saw it. It was smaller now, much smaller, but there could be no mistaking that snake that had killed so many of Andromeda's luminaries and hurt her so much.

Kicking the monster trying to bit his leg off in the face, Sol darted over to where the snake thing floated in the air, his dead eyes fixed upon Sol. He raised his scythe high to cleave its body in to-

And suddenly let out a cry of pain. A set of claws was driven into his side all the way up to the fingers they came from. It was the side that the tunnel monster had bit into, and the old pain flared up with the new to create an almost intolerable burning pain on his left side. He sliced off the hands but the claws remained stuck. Wrapping his fist around them he pulled them out and shoved them into the eyes they belonged to.

When he looked up, the snake monster was gone.

* * *

She was angry. The monsters hadn't killed the other two yet, and by the looks of it, they weren't going to. The white one and Sol were doing fairly well, however much she hated to admit it. Sirius was fighting slightly above expectations. They had already destroyed a quarter of her monster population, and it would be a while before they were reborn. At the rate they were going they were going to kill all of them just before the first ones began to rejuvenate. That was not in the plan.

"Why do they have to be so weak here!" she asked New-Sirius angrily. "They would all be nice and dead by now if those monsters weren't so weak! What's the point of having them if they can't do what I want them to do?"

New-Sirius didn't answer. He knew better than to provoke Companion when she was like this.

"At this rate I'll have to use my new toy early, and I wanted to save it!" She groaned, and then suddenly stopped. Her eyes grew bright with the dawning of a new idea.

"Yes, I'll just use it early! Then they won't kill as many monsters and with one of them down the two of them won't be able to take on the onslaught themselves!" She held up the Anti-Zoi, and a vibration shook the air.

* * *

Sirius, Sol, and Polaris felt the vibration, but were too preoccupied with the battle at hand to care much about it, until the monsters stopped fighting. They just froze where they were, their faces pointed up towards the walls of the palace. The luminaries took advantage of the monster's preoccupation, trying to kill as many as they could before they started to fight back, when something happened that made them look toward the palace too.

"SIRIUS!" A high pitched screech shook the air. Sirius, Sol, and Polaris turned their heads toward the palace. They saw nothing at first, until the noticed a slight movement on the battlements.

They saw New-Sirius first, his light blue frame eerily similar to Alpha's. She was harder to spot because she blended in with the palace's white walls. There was something darker behind her, but none of them could tell what it was.

* * *

At the sight of her Sirius boiled with hatred. His fingers tightened on his spear, itching to drive it straight into her throat. He flew straight up, so he was even with her, but still kept the distance between them. He did not hear Sol and Polaris fly up beside him, nor did he see anything but the object of his hatred. All he had were two thoughts. To get Kathleen back, and to murder Companion in her own garden, to somehow redeem himself from the betrayal he had suffered at her hands.

Seeing her again, he wondered how he ever could have fallen for her deception. How he could have ever loved that cold white figure was a complete mystery to him. When compared to Kathleen, the real Kathleen, the one underneath all the pain and hurt, Companion grew smaller and smaller in Sirius' eyes, until she was nothing but coldness and bitterness and hatred. And that hatred needed to be stamped out of his heart and his mind for good.

* * *

It was different when she was watching him through the eyes of the monsters, or through the film of the Anti-Zoi. But now she was actually seeing him, face to face, for the first time in seventeen years. A feeling something like affection came gliding across her mind, but she quickly shook it away like a cobweb. Oh sure, she had liked him once, a very, very long time ago, but those feelings had died long before she had even met New-Sirius. Sirius had been fun for a while, but he had gotten boring. He had nowhere to go, content to govern his sphere of the universe and keep her in charge of her tiny little white sphere until the end of time. She wanted more power than that! Surely she deserved it! She was beautiful enough and smart enough and strong enough to deserve better than what she had!

But the only way around her lot had been through Sirius. And that was easy once she saw him for the slow, stupid creature he was. She had begun planning his downfall years before she met New-Sirius, all the while keeping up a careful front of affection for the real Sirius. The stupid oaf had never even seen her betrayal coming. She would have completed the job and taken the Zoi for herself had not that damnable Earth-daughter interfered. Now she wanted her revenge on both of them for causing her undignified imprisonment in Unknown space, and delaying her right to seize power.

A small smirk came to her face as she realized that the damnable Earth-daughter was going to be the reason she was about to have all the power she ever wanted.

And the source of Sirius' death.

* * *

"Give me back Kathleen, Companion!" Sirius screamed across the empty space towards her. Companion smiled at him bitterly.

"You're in no position to make demands Sirius!" she replied sweetly. "I hold all the strings here, dear." With that, she pulled the dark figure in front of her. Sirius' heart leaped into his throat when he saw who it was.

Kathleen stood there, in some strange brown dress with a blue piece of cloth tied around her waist like a belt. Sirius couldn't see her face, but from the way she stood there it seemed to him like she was dazed.

Before he knew what he was doing he was beating his wings with all his might in desperation to get over to her before Companion did something else to her.

"But Sirius, I feel generous today!" Companion screamed over the sound of Sirius' wings. "You can have this back now!" She placed her pearly white hand on Kathleen's back, and with a single shove, sent her plummeting over the battlements.

* * *

She was falling through the darkness. She heard the screaming all around her, the screaming that had begun a lifetime ago, but the horror of it hadn't lessened the slightest. Dark creatures flew around her in all directions, whirling around her, the only points of light around them were their eyes, tiny pinpricks of multicolored light in her dark black world.

Suddenly, one of the monsters caught her. She looked up at it and saw that he was the most hideous of them all. A mouth full of sharp deadly fangs was dripping with poison and saliva and foam. The face was contorted and unspeakably ugly and demonic. He caught her to eat her! This is how it was all going to end, eaten by some horrific thing that should only exist in nightmares! The monster was growling at her now, growling and screeching and some poison flew out of his mouth and flecked her cheek. She recoiled in disgust.

But suddenly she found something in her hands. The things in her hands were two daggers, sharpened on both sides and ending in a vicious point. Her heart grew stronger. This is not how it would end! She would not cower from this monster or run from him! She was going to stand her ground and fight him until she beat him or died trying!

And with that declaration, she plunged her daggers into the arms that restrained her.

* * *

When Kathleen started to fall Sirius entered into a vertical dive. He caught her easily around the middle before she hit the ground. For one glorious instant he had held her, as they gently floated to the ground.

Then she had turned around to look at him.

Sirius had to restrain himself from gasping in horror. Where Kathleen's beautiful green eyes should have been, there was blackness, but that was not what bothered him. The eyes were still _there_, but the pupil and iris and whites of her eyes had become nothing but a mass of swirling black.

"Kathleen!" Sirius cried. She didn't reply. "Kathleen!" he cried louder. Still she did not respond. Suddenly she drew away from him, and made a feeble attempt to get away.

"Wh-what's happened to you?" Sirius breathed.

And then he flinched as she plunged her daggers into the arms that held her.

* * *

A/N: I have not died darlings, but things have been kind of crazy around here as of late. I would promise that there won't be another month and a half long hiatus again, but I can't promise that.

But what I can promise is that we are about 5-6 chapters away from the end, and I (for once) know exactly what is going to happen in those chapters, so maybe things won't be as slow!

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and stick around till the end.


	21. The Battle for Evermore

Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all. I hear the horses' thunder down in the valley below, I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow. – The Battle for Evermore – Led Zeppelin

* * *

"What did you do to her!" Sirius screamed over Companion's high pitched laughter. "What did you do!"

Kathleen pulled her daggers out of Sirius' arms, and before she could attack a second time Sirius flew to the ground and gently dropped her onto the grass and flew out of her range.

"She's mine now Sirius! All mine!" Companion kept laughing.

Sirius suddenly flew towards her, hatred seared onto his face.

"Ah, Sirius!" she sang. "Look behind you!"

Sirius quickly looked behind him. Kathleen was chasing him, and she was _flying_. Sirius pulled into a dive but not before Kathleen managed to stab him in the back with her left dagger.

He twisted around, forcing the knife out of his back. Kathleen started toward him again, but he was facing her this time and was able to anticipate her movements. When she suddenly flew forward and tried to stab him again, he was able to dodge the gleaming blade.

"Kathleen!" he called to her. "Kathleen it's me! Sirius!" Her face remained twisted in hatred, and her eyes black and dead. "Kathleen!" he said again, desperation etched onto his face. She brought her knife around and opened up a gash in his chest.

* * *

The monster was not fighting back. Maybe it was scared of her. Good. She had been scared of them long enough, now it was their turn. It tried to fly away from her, but she jumped into the air after it and chased it down. It barely registered in her mind that she was flying. All she desired was to kill the monster.

She caught up to it and stabbed it in the back, right under its wing. Still it did not through out a clawed hand to stop her, or bear its terrible rows of teeth at her. It twisted away from her, and dodged her next attack.

Now it was growling at her, looking at her from across the empty space between them. It was growling at her, obviously preparing to attack her. She would not let it. She rushed forward and brought the weapon in her left hand around and caught it across the chest. Thick red blood began to ooze out of the wound. A strange happiness came over her at the sight of that blood. She was hurting the monster. She was finally fighting back.

* * *

Sol felt sick. This wasn't right, none of it. Kathleen was trying to kill Sirius and it was making him sick to look at it.

Blood was now flowing out of the wound on Sirius' chest. He covered it with his left hand in some effort to stop the bleeding, but his efforts mattered little. Blood still poured out around his fingers.

But still she would not let up her assault. Again and again she tried to slash or stab him. Sirius was doing his best to avoid her, but sometimes he could not, and his blood would flow again. Sirius wasn't fighting back at all.

Sol couldn't watch this any longer without doing something. He knew this was Sirius' fight, but he didn't care. He wasn't about to lose someone else he cared about. He took to his wings and flew around behind Kathleen. Sol saw Sirius' face before Sirius saw him, and chiseled onto his face was an expression Sol had never seen there before. It was surprise, despair, desperation, hatred and confusion all at once, but in his eyes there was still a love and tenderness as he gazed upon Kathleen.

Suddenly Sirius noticed him. He started shaking his head frantically as he barely avoided yet another attack.

"Sol!" called Sirius. "Sol get away!"

"But Sirius she'll kill you if you don't do something!" Sol cried, expecting Sirius' reaction but not willing to believe it. "Fight back, stop her! I'll help you!"

"No Sol! I won't fight back! I can't hurt her!"

"Sirius she's going to _kill_ you!"

"It's not her fault, it's _hers_." He threw an arm in the direction of Companion as he danced out of the way of another attack. Sol turned to see Companion motioning to Sirius and laughing.

The feeling hit him like one of the blows from the tunnel monster. That small, pearly white luminary. It was her fault. Everything that had happened was her fault. The events of the whole escapade, from the time the monsters had first appeared to now suddenly came crashing in on him. All the luminaries that had died, all the spheres that had been destroyed. All just sacrifices to feed the insatiable appetite of destruction for this luminary who was made of nothing but pure evil. She would keep destroying, keep killing, anything to get what she wanted.

Well no more.

His heart full of hatred, Sol raced over to the battlements where Companion was, his scythe forming in his hand, his fingers tightly gripping its warm handle. She was close now. He formed a brilliant orange fireball with his left hand and began to bring his scythe around with his right. This was it!

But she had seen him coming long before. She raised that dark black thing she held in her hands and aimed it at Sol.

He was hit by an invisible blow that sent him reeling. The force of it caused him to flip over in the air twice as he wildly tried to regain his balance. His scythe flew out of his hand and landed in a bed of flowers under a tree, as he plummeted toward the ground and found himself sprawled out on the lawn. The last thing he knew was the taste of the dirt made of darkness in his mouth.

* * *

"Sol!" cried Sirius and Polaris simultaneously. Sirius began to fly off his direction but was almost immediately stopped by a dagger in his leg. Kathleen pulled it out and flew in front of him, blocking his path.

He hung his head in resignation.

"I am not going to hurt you Kathleen," he said "No matter how much you hate me now. I know you want to kill me. But I will not harm one hair on your head."

Kathleen's face showed no emotion.

* * *

Polaris didn't know what to think. She was just an Earth child, why should she matter this much to a luminary like Sirius? Destroy her and be done with it!

He thought at least Sol had some sense in him when he tried to stop Sirius, but it turned out he was just as insane as Sirius for listening to the green luminary when he told him to stop. She was going to kill Sirius, and it was pretty obvious that the logical, intelligent thing to do was to stop her before she did.

He was beginning to fly up with Sol and help him subdue the Earth girl before it was too late, but suddenly Sol had started for Companion at Sirius' urging. He had seen Companion raise that black thing, but it was too late to warn Sol. Now Sol was lying facedown in the dirt and Polaris had no idea whether he was dead or alive.

"Sol!" he called, but there was no response from the figure on the ground. Polaris had already taken to his wings toward him, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sirius do the same.

But Sirius was soon stopped by the Earth daughter. Polaris turned away from the one-sided battle and continued his way toward Sol.

But he soon encountered a problem himself. The monsters that had had their gaze riveted upon Companion had started to blink their eyes, and move and growl. They were waking up.

Suddenly Polaris felt himself pitch sideways with a pain in his wing. A monster had fastened its jaws onto Polaris and was determined to bring him down out of the sky. Polaris swung his axe around and severed its head from its body. But they all were awake now. A few more jumped toward him. He flew higher in the air, twisting around and shaking some of them off, and then he swung his axe at the ones clinging to him, so that they fell back to the lawn roaring in anger.

Polaris turned back, but all he saw now was a pile of screaming monsters where Sol had been.

* * *

The pearly luminary smiled, with hatred dancing in her eyes. The orange one was done for. He wasn't really worth much to her anyway.

Still, with him gone, Sirius' hope was now less than nothing. Polaris was utterly useless, and now it was only a simple matter of time before Kathleen killed Sirius.

Smiling, she conjured up her blood red throne and sat down upon it. She would watch the destruction of her enemy in comfort, as befitted her. For so long she had dreamed of this day. With Sirius and his friends out of the way, and the power of two of the strongest Zois in the Universe at her fingertips, she could finally achieve her ultimate dream.

She would break the order of the Universe over her knee, and leave in groveling in the dust at her feet.

* * *

She had him now. He was on the run from her, and he was growing slower and weaker as he lost blood. She had only let her guard down once. The monster had tried to hold her arms, to take the daggers away from her and thus stop her only means of attacking him.

But with strength she didn't know that she possessed, she forced her way out of his hold and flew some distance away from him. He had almost gotten her, almost consumed her with those rows and rows of long vicious teeth.

She had flown away from it to collect herself for a moment, but now she was ready to go on the offensive again. She set her face and was about to sprint forward, to bury the knife where a heart should be, and end this battle for good.

But then something strange happened. The monster turned its head toward her, and let out a howl. It was different. It sounded like it had some sort of feeling behind it, though she couldn't name it even if she tried. But because of this emotion, she restrained her plan of attack

"No," she thought. "It is only a trick to make me stop. I must not believe in its tricks, because if I do it will be the end of me. My heart must be as strong as steel." She nodded to herself with her conviction, but somewhere in her heart she was not sure if this was the path she should take.

Nevertheless, she was ready now.

* * *

Kathleen had finally stopped. Had she realized? Did she recognize him?

Sirius' heart briefly filled with hope. Ever since he had cried her name in a desperate effort to bring her back to herself, she had dropped out of her fighting stance, and a look that was almost thoughtful came over the face that had previously only expressed hatred.

But his hopes were soon crushed just as quickly as they had come. The expression disappeared, to only be replaced by one of more hatred than before, made all the more terrible by Kathleen's vacant eyes.

He saw her start forward, but he was ready for her this time, and knew what she was going to do. Sirius hoped the plan of his own would work. All he had to do was get her weapons away from her. Then he could leave her alone long enough to force Companion to change her back.

"But what if she can't?" Sirius suddenly thought, and pushed away the thought almost as quickly as it had come. He would not think of that possibility. Not ever.

Then Kathleen made her move. He saw her begin the attack; saw her start forward with her arms extended, ready to plunge her daggers into his heart. He stood still as she advanced, still as a statue. One inch closer...

Kathleen crossed that one inch as full speed. Suddenly Sirius grabbed each of her wrists in his hands and, using her own momentum, threw her over him, still holding onto her wrists.

As she was unbalanced and out of control, Sirius loosened his hold until it was at her fingers. He tried to wrench the daggers out of her hands, hoping she would be too preoccupied with gaining her balance again to be able to prevent it in time.

But his hope was wrong. Not only did Kathleen keep her weapons, she grabbed him and tried to pull him along with her. They were both sent tumbling to the ground together, Sirius twisting his body around as to absorb most of the shock from the fall.

Sirius hit the ground hard, and green blood flew out of his mouth and onto his neck and face. He felt a great pressure on his stomach, but did not know what to attribute it to. Weakly he moved his fingers and toes, to ensure himself that he still could. The fall had bestowed upon him more pain than any of the wounds Kathleen had given him had. All of a sudden he felt pain erupt in his shoulders and chest again, and he opened the eyes that he had instinctively shut against the fall.

The weight on his stomach was Kathleen, and she, with her weapons glistening, was opening up gash after gash on Sirius' body.

* * *

There was no way the monster could escape from her. She did not thinkabout how the monster had protected her from the fall. It was all just a trick anyway. No more tricks.This was going to end here and now.

In blind fury she attacked it with her daggers, cutting up its arms and chest and shoulders. Then the monster's eyes opened. This was it.

Kathleen positioned the knives at his throat.


	22. Ripple

There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night. And if you go no one may follow. That path is for your steps alone – Ripple – Grateful Dead

* * *

There were screams all around him. Those monsters. He felt a pain in his back and knew they were trying to kill him, or eat him, or whatever they did. His eyes were still closed. He couldn't see them, at least. 

No. This would not be it. He felt his scythe form underneath his hand.

With a shout, Sol, immersed in orange fire, burst out of the pile of monsters that had buried him. Ignoring the pain in his side and back, he began slashing at the demons around him, spinning around and striking them down on all sides. He jumped into the air and didn't notice that one of his wings was mangled. He still flew.

Then he saw them. Sirius and Kathleen.

"NOO!" he screamed, but his call was lost I the cries of the monsters around him.

* * *

Companion felt the breath catch in her throat.

* * *

New-Sirius leaned forward over the ramparts to better see the end.

* * *

Polaris tried to shout, tried to say something before it happened, but found he could not.

* * *

Sirius knew this was it. The end. He never dreamed it would end like this. His whole body was a mass of pain. Kathleen's eyes were vacant pools of black. It shouldn't end like this. Companion shouldn't win. 

But she would.

His arms aching, he slowly reached for the hands that held the daggers at his throat. Her touch would be the last thing he would know. His fingers closed around the hands so tightly clenched around their knives.

He waited for the final blow to strike.

* * *

The monster was beneath her weapons. All she need do was drive them down, and it would be gone. It would never hurt her again. She would be able to keep going. Her hands began the downward stroke that would end it all. 

But suddenly she stopped, her hands shaking with adrenaline. The monster had just wrapped its claws around her hands. Not trying to stop the kill. Just holding her hands in his. Were they claws?

Of course they were claws, what else could they be?

But they didn't feel like claws. There were no long nails. They were softer than claws. They felt familiar. Warm.

His fingers were warm.

Warm like fire.

Her shaking hand in his fiery green one.

The memory flitted across her mind. Her shaking hand in his fiery green one. Whose fiery green hand? Her grip on her daggers slackened. Was this a trick?

No. This was not a trick. This was very real.

Kathleen looked up from her knives. She saw its eyes. The monsters eyes. They were no longer empty. They were green. Brilliant, fiery green. She would know those eyes anywhere.

They were his eyes. Sirius' eyes.

Sirius.

SIRUIS!

* * *

Then the cracks began in the corners of her vision. They started slowly, then swiftly moved in and entwined with one another, and suddenly the dark world around her shattered like a pane of black glass. The world that had been terrifying and strange was now nothing but Unknown Space. The screaming was not gone, but it took on a different form, one that did not strike fear into the depths of her heart. 

And gone was the monster she thought had tried to kill her. Below her daggers was no monster. It was Sirius.

With a cry she dropped her weapons and threw her arms around his neck.

* * *

Sirius saw it. Kathleen's eyes. She stopped, and looked at him, and then the darkness that was her eyes suddenly changed. The darkness cracked, and suddenly it broke into tiny pieces. The pieces fell into the air, and then vanished into nothingness. 

Her eyes. Her beautiful green eyes that were shining with tears.

As she buried her face in his shoulder with her arms around his neck he brought his own arms around her, completing the embrace.

"S-Sirius...," she began, but Sirius told her to hush.

"It's okay," he whispered softly. "Everything is going to be okay."

Kathleen felt something warm against her cheek. She picked up her head and saw that it was green blood. His blood.

With a cry she leapt up and stared as Sirius' wounds in horror. She had done this. Tears began rolling freely down her cheeks. This was all her fault. It was her fault for getting caught, for letting Companion use that Anti-Zoi on her and now Sirius was dying because of her.

Sirius was dying.

Kathleen sank down to her knees next to him.

"Oh my god Sirius... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!"

Sirius reached for her hand and clasped it in his.

"You're back," he said simply, smiling. "You're back and that's all that matters."

"No, Sirius... I won't let you... You can't die!"

"I won't die Kathleen. I can't."

"W-What do you mean?"

"I can't die before she does." Sirius pointed a shaking finger towards the ramparts.

* * *

New-Sirius had begun to cower. Right now, Companion was the scariest thing he had ever seen in his life. 

The light around her that didn't burn was shining like white heat. Her eyes had rolled back in her head and her hair had seemed to take on a life of its own. The palace and grounds began to shake, once more the monsters looked up at their queen to see what ailed her... and then it came.

Companion's banshee shriek of rage brought everything and everyone to their knees. Unknown Space itself trembled at the sound, the monsters began rolling on the ground and whining, New-Sirius had backed into his corner as far as possible and was crouching there covering his ears. Polaris came crashing out of the sky clutching at the sides of his head, Sol tried to ignore it as he feebly slashed at the wings of tortured monsters, Sirius clenched his teeth and tried to cover his ears with his wounded arms, Kathleen was brought to her knees and bit her lip until it bled.

"NO!" Companion screeched. "No! No! No! No! She was supposed to kill him! She was so CLOSE! No one can break the spells of my Anti-Zoi! NO ONE!"

Suddenly the light shining off her pulled in on itself, and her eyes and hair regained their normal appearance.

"But they are fooling themselves. This is less than a setback for me." She turned her eyes upon Kathleen. Kathleen sprang up off her knees and met Companion's gaze with her own cool look of defiance.

"You have outlived your usefulness as my pawn, dear Kathleen." She raised the Anti-Zoi and pointed it at the woman standing in front of Sirius' prostrate form.

"But you're quiet good to me dead!" Companion swung the Anti-Zoi, and a black vibration shook the air.

* * *

Sol was struggling over to where Sirius and Kathleen were, his ears still ringing with Companion's shriek. He could hear nothing, not even the sound of his own labored breathing. He had given up on killing all the monsters. There were too many, and they just kept coming back. But Sirius and Kathleen, there was something he could change. If he could just get them out of there... At least they would be saved. It had been so close. But somehow Kathleen had broken whatever hold Companion had had on her. Sol had breathed again. They were alright, for now. 

But it still wasn't safe for them. They needed to get out. He had to get them out.

But the wing of his! Sol had chanced one look back at it. Orange blood was flowing off of the mangled flesh, the flesh that hung in strips where one or more monsters had dragged their claws. It was barely functioning as it was, and Sol verily felt the life and energy draining out of him with every flap.

But no. He had to ignore it. He had to pull those two away. They needed to get out of here. The good guys couldn't win. Companion and her monsters and her Anti-Zoi were too strong.

Sirius and Kathleen could escape. He, Sol, would not.

That snake luminary that had killed so many of Andromeda's luminaries. The one that had made her cry. He was going to kill it in such a horrific fashion that it would not come back. After that, he didn't care what happened to him.

But if those two could escape, if they could somehow make it to the outside. They could bring others, many others.

A monster newly recovered from the scream suddenly flew right at Sol, claws out. Sol slowly tried to dodge, but the monster ended up brining a piece of Sol's damaged wing away wing him. Sol came crashing to the ground, landing on his knees on the ground.

Swaying he got to his feet and began to walk. His walk soon turned into a limp, and then he resorted to dragging his left leg behind him. He was almost to them. His side had never recovered from that bite. The leg was simply useless. That was all. All that mattered was getting them out, and then killing the monster.

It was just a few more yards now. He could hear Companion saying something in the background and couldn't decipher what it was. His hearing was fuzzy. But she was speaking coolly and calmly. Whatever she was saying, it wasn't anything good.

He could get there in time. He had to get there in time.

Suddenly it came again. That ugly dark vibration.

Sol finally saw what he had been looking at. Sirius was lying on his back in a pool of green blood. Kathleen was clearly silhouetted, a black form against the ivory white of the palace's walls. But the dark vibration, it was there too.

It was coming straight for Kathleen.

Sol managed one strangled cry before the black vibration hit Kathleen head-on in a splash of darkness. Then Sol collapsed.

All hope was gone.

* * *

Companion laughed again. The darkness around Kathleen had not yet dissipated, but it would be a mere matter of seconds before it and the woman would be gone. 

She turned to New-Sirius with a look of joy in her eyes. New-Sirius was more afraid of this look than her look of rage.

"Well my love," she began. "It is all over now. Should we let the monsters finish them off, or would you like the honor?"

"It's alittle early for that Companion!" Companion's eyes grew wide with anger and horror. That voice had come from the woman she was supposed to have just killed.

* * *

Kathleen was standing within a circle of light. The darkness around her tried in vain to break it, and then with a wave of her hand, she sent some of the darkness away, flying back toward the immaculate walls of the palace and staining them black. 

Kathleen threw her head of red hair back proudly. In her right hand she held a rose. A large, long stemmed purple rose with vicious thorns.

The monsters that had been creeping around Sirius and Sol were suddenly driven back by beams of light radiating from Kathleen's circle. The beams of light flowed over Sol and Sirius, but their wounds remained as ugly as ever. Kathleen showed some frustration at this limit of her powers, but she was not discouraged.

"Polaris!" she shouted in a commanding tone. Polaris, who had stopped along with the monsters to shield his eyes from the light slowly floated toward Kathleen.

"Protect them Polaris," she said, indicating Sirius and Sol. "I can't hold the monsters off forever!"

"HOW DARE YOU!" Companion screamed. Kathleen shot a menacing glance toward the ramparts.

"You can't use that here! No luminary can use Zois here!"

Kathleen looked down at herself in mock incredulity. "Well!" she said. "It seems as if you haven't noticed before. I'm not a luminary!"

* * *

Sol crawled over to where Sirius was. Polaris stood between the two, scanning within 360 degree radius, ignoring his own cuts and abrasions, daring the first monster to even come close. 

Sol pulled himself into a sitting position and helped Sirius to do the same. Sirius' eyes were shining as he watched Kathleen easily fend off the monsters with her Zoi, searing them with beams of light, or sending a little bit of darkness mixed with light into them, tearing them apart from the inside.

"What's going on Sirius?" Sol said weakly. "How can she? Control both the light and the darkness touched by light? How can she use the Zoi at all?"

"She's from both worlds Sol," Sirius replied, a little stronger than his friend. "Her soul is from Earth, but her body is from the Star World. I made that body from my Zoi. Her body is pure Star, her soul pure Earth. She is very different Sol. She can do things that pure luminaries cannot. You of all luminaries should know how different children of Earth are."

Sol, for the first time since Andromeda had died, smiled.

There was hope.

* * *

"You should be dead!" The pearly luminary was almost in hysterics. "That should have killed you... you can't use that here – you _can't!_ No one can! Luminary or otherwise! That's what She told me! That's why I can't use her powers to their fullest! They're too similar to the powers of a Zoi!" 

Kathleen shot a beam of light up to Companion, but Companion moved aside at the last moment, and the beam instead struck side of the palace, shattering the wall.

"_No!_" she screamed again. "No! You should be writing in pain, or groveling in submission! Grovel! Be my pawn! You are mine! I'll make you work!"

"SHUTUP!" shouted Kathleen. "No more. I won't work for you! I won't grovel! Not anymore!" She grinned.

"Now _no one_ who steps on me gets away with it you ugly bitch!"


	23. Heroes

I, I will be King and you, you will be Queen. Though nothing will drive them away, we can be Heroes, just for one day – Heroes – David Bowie

* * *

Companion felt Kathleen's exclamation pass through her like a blade of ice. Just as she was about to let forth another ear-bleeding screech, she strangled the cry in her throat. Now was not the time for outbursts. She must think now. Screaming would solve nothing. 

Of course, Kathleen's indiscretion would not go unpunished, and she must still destroy the three luminaries. But this new power of Kathleen's placed her in quite a different position.

That was it then. Kathleen must be stopped first. Then the other three would be murdered before her eyes, and then she herself would die. Companion felt relief was over her. Now she had a clear plan of action.

* * *

Every movement of the battle she had felt through her entire being. She had silently cheered when they seemed to be winning, and had wept when it seemed that all was lost. 

She was utterly powerless, could do nothing, nothing but hope that something would go right, hope that Companion might by some stretch of the imagination lose this fight and they could all get out of here alive. She hoped for something else as well, but believed that that was perhaps hoping for to much.

But through all of this hope, She knew they had practically no chance. There were too many monsters, Companion's Anti-Zoi was too powerful, Polaris, Sol and Sirius were too weak, and Kathleen just wasn't strong enough to handle it all. They couldn't win, and it would take a miracle for them to even come close to winning.

But maybe they could. She had seen miracles happen before.

Miracles...

* * *

"How much farther is it now?" A deep baritone voice. It would be comforting and soothing if it were not strained by anxiety. 

"Not much. I can feel them growing closer." An almost empty voice, like a well with only a little water left in the bottom.

"If you're wrong..."

"I am not wrong. I have too much riding on this to be wrong."

"You were wrong in the first place to do what you did! You had no right to interfere in my world."

"Your world? You haven't concerned yourself with the affairs of your world for millions of years!"

"But-"

"Look I was out of line with what I did, I'll admit that. It seemed right at the time. Maybe it still is, I don't know. But we can't really afford to worry about who is right and who is wrong now. It doesn't matter. All that matters is them."

"I can certainly agree with that, good sir. We waste out breath with idle chatter. Onward!"

* * *

She looked down at the silly, defiant young woman and without a word, aimed her Anti-Zoi down at her and sent a black beam of terrible nothingness straight at her. Kathleen, smiling a strange half-smile, raised her Zoi and countered with a beam of white Zoi magic that collided with the black in the air in a spattering of darkness and light that shook the whole of Unknown Space. 

But when the noise had ceased the beams of darkness and light emanating from the Zoi and the Anti-Zoi remained, suspended exactly between Kathleen and Companion, neither one of them willing to give the other an inch. And Kathleen still retained her circle of light that protected the three luminaries from the monsters with apparent ease.

"Please give up now little girl," said Companion softly, almost tenderly if it were not for the ice at the heart of it. "Give up. You can't heal them and they are going to die. Look at how they bleed already." She laughed. "I mean, _Polaris_ is now the strongest of the three! Sirius is covered in the wounds you so lovingly bestowed upon him, and Sol is utterly missing a wing. You know what happens if he dies, don't you? Sol burns out, and the earth freezes over and dies."

Kathleen suddenly felt a stab at her heart. Earth, her home, the people, Robin, Basil, their children, even that bastard of an ex-husband. All dead and gone because she had made the wrong decision. The black beam suddenly surged and gained on the beam of white.

"That's it Kathleen. You know you don't have to fight. I'll let them live, even give you all a way out. Just stop. Hand over that Zoi, and you can all go. Everyone will be safe. Earth will be safe." The black beam surged farther forward. Even the circle protecting the luminaries began to fade.

"Kathleen!" It was Sirius. "She's lying, you know she's lying! She wants to kill us, she's going to kill us if you hand over that Zoi, and you know that!" Kathleen shook her head as if waking from a dream. His voice had brought her back. The circle roared to life again, and this time it was the white beam that drew closer to Companion. The pearly luminary hissed in rage, knowing that opportunity was lost.

"Sirius," she shouted. "Sirius you have been far too detrimental to my plans. You're done, you're finished. You know the little girl can't protect you now!"

Suddenly the black beam increased its power, sending itself back toward Kathleen, who in turn poured more of her energy into the white beam. Then Companion laughed again.

"Very good little girl, I'll have you dancing my dance yet!" Then the monsters surged forth again, testing their might against the circle of light, forcing Kathleen to make the circle stronger. But Companion poured more and more into that black beam, and Kathleen had to answer her with something.

"If I take away the circle, the monsters get them," Kathleen quickly thought. "But if I keep the circle and lose the beam, it will destroy me." Kathleen then made the decision that would forever alter the battle. This decision would be the reason for its outcome.

She took away the circle.

* * *

Polaris, Sirius, and Sol were suddenly without cover. But they smiled at each other just before the giant onslaught of monsters hit, each separately understanding that Kathleen had made the right choice to them as well. Then a dog like thing crashed into Polaris, and there was no more time for smiles. 

Polaris pulled away and swung his axe down and around, cleaving the head of the thing in two. He knew he would have to fight them all off virtually alone.

Behind him, Sirius and Sol staggered to their feet, leaning heavily on their weapons. They were not about to go down without a fight.

Polaris was able to hold them off for a few moments, the moments when they were all swarming at him in one direction. But soon the monsters grew wise. They began to surround the three luminaries.

The floor beneath them was streaked and splotched with green and black, the fake grass had been torn away to reveal the darkness underneath. The only bright spots were the luminaries themselves, and the pools and streaks of orange, white, and green blood. The only bright spots in a ring of darkness.

Then the monsters struck.

* * *

Kathleen tried to keep her mind focused on the beam, tried to concentrate her power and energy on driving the light back up through the darkness and then straight through Companion. 

But the sounds of the battle behind her were incessant, and she couldn't concentrate. Her mind was continually suspended between the light and the battle. Dozens of What Ifs began to run across her brain.

What if one of them dies? What if it is Sol? What if it is Polaris? What if... it is Sirius who dies? What if I can't hold her off? What if I'm not strong enough? And the biggest What If of all, What if I made the wrong decision? What if I should have kept the circle?

And the beam of darkness, instead of lessening, began to grow closer to her. The darkness was winning.

* * *

New-Sirius was terrified. Companion, not even in her most insane state, had ever looked like this before. Her body crackled with the power of the Anti-Zoi, her hair stuck straight out and seemed to move of its own accord, and her dress swirled and billowed around her, though there was no wind to speak of. 

But it was her face that was the worse. All the muscles drawn tight and coiled. Her lips were drawn back and she bared her teeth in a sickening grin, like a wild thing playing with its prey before it devoured the helpless creature. And her eyes. The eyes were at the heart of his terror. They were wider than seemed possible, the pupils were dilated and out of sync with each other, and over all of this her eyes emitted strange pearly fumes. Not like fire. She was never fire. Those eyes.

And suddenly, New-Sirius did something he never would have dreamed of doing not even ten minutes ago. He allowed doubt to enter his mind. The doubt he had been holding back for so many years. Not even the power of the Anti-Zoi that ran though him could manage to keep it at bay. All the doubts.

Maybe Companion was wrong. Maybe she always had been, always would be, wrong.

Was it possible? Yes. It was possible.

Was it true?

The Anti-Zoi within him screamed of power and bloodlust and the ability to do whatever he wanted. He ignored it this time.

Was it true?

* * *

In her cell, She suddenly sensed something beyond the horrifying image of the battle below, and this something was very different, but familiar. Something was coming. No. Something big was coming. It was beautiful and ugly, absolutely wonderful and terrible. But no. Not really so terrible. The terrible was masking something. Someone. Silver tears sprang into her eyes. Was this one of them? Was this a miracle?

* * *

Polaris was weakening. There were too many. There had always been too many, but his axe wasn't has heavy then. White blood didn't coat his arms and hands and make his grip slip then. He wasn't the only one really doing any fighting then. 

Sirius and Sol were fighting a few feet from him, leaning against each other, picking each other up when one of them fell, and covering for each other when something attacked. And all the while killing less than half what one of them would usually do on their own.

They were alive. That was something at least. But who knew how long that would last? Kathleen was losing her battle with Companion. The darkness had taken over three quarters of the distance between the two, and it was still closing. That little quarter of light was the only hope of so many. Just a tiny pinprick of light really. It could go out at any second.

But then something happened, and the light suddenly became a very close second to Polaris' worries.

* * *

It was a flying monster with outrageously long claws. Sirius saw it first. He wasn't even sure if Sol saw it at all until it was too late. Far too late. 

Sol was attacking something running toward them, towards Sirius to be precise, its jaws open and its fangs gleaming. Sol crouched down and swung his scythe into its mouth, bringing the thing crashing to the ground. Sirius saw it coming when Sol had bent down. But when he began to straighten up to kill the next thing, Sirius realized that Sol didn't see what was coming right at his head.

Acting before he could even think of what he was doing, Sirius shoved Sol down onto the ground, saving him from certain impalement by the things claws. But maybe he forgot, or maybe he knew the whole time.

He had been behind Sol.

Polaris screamed something at him, but he couldn't tell what it was and it didn't matter.

The monster drove its claws into Sirius' chest so deep they went right through him and emerged between the wings on his back. Sol sprang up, not knowing what had happened, and cut the thing away from his friend with his scythe. But the claws remained. Sol felt the breath catch in his throat and stared in horror at the claws that had run Sirius through.

Sirius stared down at the claws with blood pumping out around them in disbelief for only a moment. They were his death sentence. He felt his legs give way under him and was brought crashing to his knees.

"Sirius?" Sol heard himself shouting, but he was no longer the master of his own self. "Sirius!"

* * *

Kathleen whirled her head around. She did not scream. She didn't have the energy of the will to scream. The darkness suddenly took a great leap forward. She wasn't ready to believe this. This could not be happening. He said it wouldn't! He said he wouldn't die until she did! He wouldn't lie to her like that, would he? It was this disbelief that kept her tethered to the spot, the disbelief that kept the beam of light going, through the darkness was eating it up still. 

Sirius looked up at Sol, and then turned to look at Kathleen. He was smiling.

"I'm sorry," he said softly to her. When he spoke, blood trickled out of his mouth. "I'm sorry I have to leave so soon." Then he turned to Sol. "Take care of her for me, okay?" he asked. Sol nodded, not knowing whether he meant Kathleen or Companion, but not really caring either way. Sirius turned his burning green gaze upward.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this."

Then he fell forward, eyes still open and burning, and moved no more.

* * *

Kathleen, with tears streaming down her face, was about to drop the Zoi, to hell with Companion and her games! and run to his side. But in that split second, the instant before she would have abandoned that burning beam of white light, there was a great crashing and shaking. Then suddenly there was a flash of light and darkness that came from the direction of the tunnels, and everyone was blinded.

* * *

It was that room again. The dark room with the green floor that reminded her of moss, and the only light in the room was emanating from the floor. And he was there again as well, the man from the hospital, the dark-eyed man from her dreams. He seemed different this time, but not unpleasantly so. More familiar maybe. The pain she had felt, the unbearable pain of losing Sirius, was suddenly only a dull throb. Distant. She felt like she should panic, but didn't. Why didn't she feel it anymore? 

Then she noticed something she hadn't the last time she had been here. It was a dog, a female, but one that looked remarkably like Leo. Several pups surrounded her. And suddenly Robin was at her elbow. Not Robin as he appeared now, but as he appeared when she had first come to live with them.

"I want a puppy Kathleen," he said very seriously. But no, that wasn't what had happened. Robin hadn't said it that way.

Then it hit her like a bucket of ice water. Her eyes opened up and her mind cleared. This wasn't a dream or a vision. This was a _memory_! This had really and truly happened, one of the memories Sirius had told her about but she couldn't remember. But why should she remember it now?

Then she turned her face toward the man with the dark eyes, and she smiled, because now she understood. She didn't understand everything, enough to know who had taken her memories away, but not why. Enough to know exactly who the dark-eyed man was that seemed to haunt her, or watch over her. Her smile widened. The smile was for him. He smiled back.

"Don't let go," he told her. "I'll handle the rest."

* * *

She was back on that lawn in Unknown Space. The darkness was now nipping at her hands, the light holding on by only a fraction of an inch. The pain that had been so distant in that room suddenly came flooding back, desperately making her want to relinquish her hold. But she did not. He had placed his trust in her. She had to listen to him; she knew it was the only way that all of this was going to turn out alright. 

She pushed back on the darkness, forcing the light past it, gaining an inch, two inches, six inches, a foot. Companion wasn't fighting back as hard as she should have, because her eyes, like everyone else's were fixated upon the two new figures on the green and black smeared lawn. Kathleen didn't have to look at them. She already knew.

* * *

The first one, the one bathed in light, was the gold luminary with three sets of wings. Him. And the other, bathed in darkness, was her watcher, the man with the dark eyes who she had met one night seventeen years ago. The Master of the Hunt. 


	24. Wild Horses III

I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie. I have my freedom but I don't have much time. Faith has been broken, tears must be cried, let's do some living after we die – Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones

* * *

He focused his gaze upon the white walls of the palace, rage etched into this face. But the Master shook his head, and pointed toward the monsters. Their blindness was fading and they were about to mount another attack. 

"Those have to go first," he said in his hollow voice. "Hold them off until the others get here." After a moment's hesitation, He nodded, and turned towards them. A golden fire began to flicker around his fingers.

The first monster to run at him was blasted into a golden powder the second it began the attack. Then He threw three fireballs from each hand into the crowd, and the fire behaved like homing missiles, crashing through one monster and continuing onto the next, until they eventually burned themselves out after taking down all the monsters close to the luminaries.

He smiled bitterly at the remaining creatures, as they began to draw closer, trying to form a ring around them as the others had done. He drew a fiery circle in the air, and one flash of light later there was a tall flaming barrier on all sides between them and the monsters. They began to throw themselves at the barrier, only to run away screaming as flames licked their bodies.

* * *

The Master had paid no attention to Him once it was certain that he would attack the monsters and not the palace. Instead the Master had hurried over to where Sirius lay, in a half-gliding, half-running sort of way. When he saw the situation he wanted to start screaming and cursing at everything from himself, to Him, to Companion, and to Sirius himself. But he managed to quell the emotion just in time. These emotions were quite pesky things. Over seventeen years now and he still wasn't used to them. 

Sol took his eyes away from the body of his friend and gazed up at the approaching being. He recognized him, that rebellious child of Earth, the one that Earth tried to hide from him. But he didn't know why he was here, and it didn't matter.

Sirius was dead. Andromeda was dead. Soon Polaris would be dead and Kathleen would be dead and he himself would be dead as well. It didn't matter who showed up or what happened anymore. Their deaths couldn't be reversed.

"He's gone," said Sol softly. "You're about a minute too late. He wouldn't have lasted anyway. Not with all that loss of energy." Then he chanced a look at his wing and gave an empty laugh. "I'm not going to last either."

But the Master seemed to pay him no heed. He rolled Sirius onto his back and looked at his empty eyes.

"But look at him," said the Master. "His fires not gone yet." Sol still shook his head.

"Zoi's don't work, we can't heal him." At that the Master smiled.

"It's not that Zoi's don't work," he said, and he grasped the claws still stuck into the body of the green luminary. "It's that Zois are based entirely upon light, and light is so weak here, in the heart of Unknown Space." He pulled out the claws one by one, causing a spring of blood to well up where each claw had been. Then he placed his right hand over the gaping wound.

"But if you remember, I'm not light."

The Master and Sirius were suddenly enveloped in darkness, darkness that seemed to come from the Master and from the surrounding area of Unknown space as well. The darkness might have lasted maybe three seconds, but to Sol it felt like hours. Could it be possible?

At almost the exact same moment that the golden barrier went up, the darkness surrounding the Master and Sirius cleared. Sirius still lay on the ground. Sol's heart sank.

The Master straightened up. He turned to Him to see how he was doing. He noticed the barrier and his shoulders dropped. He was relaxed. Then he turned to Sol. And he smiled.

* * *

The light was pushing its way forward, but the darkness was still winning. Kathleen tried to focus everything into the Zoi, but something held her back, kept her focused on this plane, and she couldn't give herself over completely.

* * *

Companion had been filled with joy at seeing Sirius fall. After so long, he was finally gone! Now she could put him entirely behind her, and concentrate on what really mattered. Kathleen turned away from her Zoi, now was her chance! 

But then it seemed as if time had stopped for a moment. She faltered. Unknown Space was _her_ realm, how dare something occur to it that she didn't command! Then time restarted. There was a bright light shining in the corner, along with a great darkness that was different than her own. She forgot to pay attention to Kathleen, who suddenly wasn't paying attention to Sirius.

She struggled to see through the light and the darkness, but she was practically blinded. Kathleen pushed the darkness back even further, and still Companion didn't notice.

And then she saw, and what she saw made her rage flare up once more. The darkness was the same darkness that came from that night seventeen years ago, and the light was Him, the golden one, the closest thing to royalty that the Universe had.

Companion suddenly brought her stare away from that vision of power. Her darkness was beginning to lose. No. That simply couldn't happen. She had to kill Kathleen. Even if the tide of the battle was turned entirely against her, at least she would get the consolation prize of decimating the thing that Sirius loved most, along with Sirius himself. Sirius was dead, Kathleen was next, and there was no avoiding it.

And then Companion saw something. Something that made her rage and hatred utterly uncontrollable.

* * *

Kathleen felt a warm presence around her. A burning green hand suddenly lay on her shoulder. She leaned into the touch, and tears of happiness came to her eyes. 

"We've got everything under control back here," he said softly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sol, with two complete and healthy wings, slicing into a horde of monsters. "You just need to beat her. Don't worry about anything or anyone else. We'll all be fine." A small wisp of fire curled out of his hand and brushed her cheek. No, not brushed. Kissed. Her heart was full to bursting with an emotion she finally recognized as love.

"Sirius..."

"Just concentrate on the light. You can do it." Kathleen smiled a soft smiled and nodded.

Then all to soon the hand left her shoulder, but the warmth there and all around lingered.

With her smile still in place, she turned her full attention toward the light emitting from the rose in her hand. And suddenly pushing back the darkness all the way didn't seem hard at all. Push the darkness all the way back and send her light right through Companion. The world around her fell away, all she saw was the beam of light against the beam of darkness. And she shoved it back. The darkness couldn't match her light.

* * *

The wall of light was holding, but it was growing weaker. Sol, feeling better than he had since he had been attacked by that scorpion monster that seemed years ago, along with Polaris, free of all wounds, dove through the wall of light and began to cut away at every creature within reach of their weapons. They were soon joined by the Master, who was able to manipulate the darkness in them to cause the monsters to turn on each other. He was maintaining the wall of light that kept the monsters from even getting close to Kathleen. Then Sirius entered into the fray, and the tide of the battle had, without a doubt, turned in their favor. 

During a lull in the battle, Sol chanced a look behind him. There, beyond the wall, he saw Kathleen. She was floating so far above the ground as to be even with Companion on the battlements of the castle. She was immersed in white light that looked like fire; tongues of flame shot out and danced around her. The light had driven the darkness back all the way to the wall of the castle. Sol smiled hollowly.

The battle was almost won.

Just then, a snake-like monster suddenly surged past the orange luminary, and Sol tore his gaze from Kathleen to pursue that thing. The thing that had upset her so much, the thing that had made her cry.

* * *

Once again plans and schemes began to from in Companions mind. But they were all silly and foolish and desperate plans. All except for one. That was her only way out. 

"You!" she shouted at New-Sirius. The pale blue luminary slowly turned his head toward her.

"No one is paying attention to the girl! Take care of her now!"

New-Sirius turned toward Kathleen. Yes, except for the wall of golden fire, she was unprotected. One blow from his mace and she would lay crumbled in a heap on the darkness streaked lawn. Then, no matter what happened after that, Companion would have won something.

"Go now!" she screamed, as the light continued to eat up her darkness. "Quickly, before it's to late!"

He turned back toward Companion. His love, his queen.

"No."

Her face blanched. "What did you just say to me?!" Her voice quivered.

"You heard me, I said no."

Her eyes seemed lost. "You throw in your lot with them and you'll die just like that filthy pink one did!"

"Her name was Andromeda, and you really must stop this. You've lost my dear. I'm not going to kill her."

"You can't override the darkness! It's part of your being! I order you, I order the darkness I placed in you, to kill that damn girl!"

New-Sirius turned away from her.

Companion was beyond panic. She was somewhere just shy of complete breakdown of rational thinking facilities. And that bright shining light was now at her hands.

But then, in the next moment, she saw it. Her last ace in the hole.

It must have been reborn inside the wall of light. None of the luminaries had noticed. It was vicious looking enough, with long fangs and claws, and most appealing of all, it had wings. It would make quick work of her.

With the barest minimal energy she could tear away from her Anti-Zoi, she commanded the monster to look up. And look up it did.

The second it saw the floating, fiery thing that was Kathleen, it let out a wild shriek. It sprang up off the ground, tearing its way though the negative space between itself and Kathleen, claws extended and fangs bared.

* * *

Sirius and Sol turned at the sound of the shriek. Their eyes widened in horror, but they were too far away. They barely had made it through the wall of light when it happened. 

The blue mace came crashing down, smashing the thing's head into nothing but a mushy pulp. It came straight down to the ground like a stone, but the blue mace went with it.

The hand that it fell from was shaking. New-Sirius, floating barely a foot away from the fiery shining star that was Kathleen, was violently shaking all over from the tips of his wings to the points of his feet.

He knew almost immediately what it was. The darkness wasn't happy.

Maybe it was under the influence of Companion. Maybe it was upset at being too close to the power of Kathleen's light. Or maybe, it knew what he had just done.

He didn't know why, but whatever the reason was, the result was the same. The darkness wasn't happy, and to have its revenge, it was eating him. Eating him alive from the inside.

Strangely, he felt no pain. He realized that dying in this way should be excruciatingly painful, and was confused. But then he lost all sense of his being in the physical world. He felt light washing over him, and his body seemed to fall away.

_

* * *

You saved me... Why? _

_She was wrong. She's been wrong forever. I'm sorry I didn't see it before. _

_But you knew this would happen, didn't you? You knew your own darkness would turn against you! _

_I don't care. I've been with her for so long I don't know how to care about myself. I suppose I just replaced her with you as the only thing I care about. _

_Maybe you did it because you thought it was right._

_I don't even know what's right anymore. _

_You didn't have to do this. _

_I know. _

_Thank you. _

* * *

It echoed in both his and her voice. And as the darkness killed him and the light rushed in, his lover was meeting the opposite fate. 

Kathleen's light burst through the Anti-Zoi's defenses. It punched a hole through Companion and sent her reeling. She slammed against the wall and her Anti-Zoi flew out of her hands and came to rest upon the white floor of the battlements. But Companion didn't notice. She would have cried, but she didn't have enough light left inside her to cry.

And as Kathleen's light burned away her pearly outer covering, it revealed the ugly, revolting, unclean darkness underneath. Her true being.

Thus the queen and her consort died at the same time. The consort was destroyed by the darkness, but in the end, embraced by the light. And his queen, his lover, his Companion, was destroyed by the light, and embraced only by the darkness.


	25. Paradise

Cause Paradise is anywhere where I can be with you, leave behind the heartache and pain that I've been though. I'm safe in your arms, safe in the world tonight, for you are my Paradise – Paradise – Styx

* * *

She knew she was falling. She couldn't feel anything but fleeting warmth in her arms, and when that was gone she knew she wouldn't feel anything. She wasn't even sure if she was holding the Zoi anymore, or even if she was in Unknown Space.

Then suddenly she felt something. Kathleen realized she wasn't falling anymore. Then she felt a different warmth. It wrapped itself around her. She closed the eyes that couldn't see anything and snuggled against the warmth. Sleep called to her, tempted and beckoned to her. But she knew she couldn't give in. There was still so much to do before she could finally sleep.

* * *

It was almost over. Sol had seen Companion and New Sirius literally ripped to shreds by darkness and light. It had been both horrifying and beautiful to witness.

There were no doubts in his mind that she was really gone this time. She was not going to show up in some little known corner of the Universe harboring vengeance in her heart. She was never going to hurt anyone again. He looked toward Polaris. Companion wasn't going to control anyone anymore either.

But the pain in his heart was not soothed. Companion's death and Alpha's death and the death of New-Sirius hadn't changed that. Andromeda was still just as dead as she was when she had died in his arms. How long ago was it? Hours? Days? Weeks? Time didn't matter here in Unknown Space. They could have been fighting that battle for years. Nothing had changed!

Then he saw Sirius and Kathleen. Sirius had flown up to catch her the second she started to fall. Now she was nestled in his arms with her arms around his neck. Her eyes were closed, but Sirius was gazing at her with an expression he had never seen the green luminary wear before. It was the expression he knew that he himself would wear if he and Andromeda were in Sirius and Kathleen's place. It was an expression of unfathomable love.

Overcome with emotion, Sol turned away from them. But the view from that direction was not much better for him.

* * *

The second Companion was dead He had flown over to The Master.

"Now," he commanded the dark man. "Now we destroy it." The Master was in no place to argue with the great luminary, and nodded.

Both of them sent out huge tendrils of power toward the white walls of the castle. The strings of gold and deep purple blended with the walls immediately. The walls acted like a conductor, taking the power strands from their entrance point on the bare wall and spreading them over every inch of the palace within moments.

When the highest point of the tallest tower was consumed by their power they turned to each other and smiled.

There was no loud, grandiose explosion or flash of blinding light. There was barely even a whisper. Just a simple sound like a summer's breeze through the trees and the palace was gone. Disappeared without a trace. The green grounds around the palace were gone. Nothing was left but the crushing blackness, and one tiny spot of light. Where the castle had once stood, there was a figure of silver light. It was She, and she was wearing the most beautiful smile He had ever seen anyone wear.

She was speechless. When He had shown up on the battlefield, she knew it was all over for Companion. If he had come all this way for her there was no way he was going to let a nothing like Companion stand in his way.

Then before she knew it he was standing there looking at her and their eyes met. In that one moment all the thousands of years between them melted away. She started moving closer toward him and she realized she was flying, and so was he. Before she knew it she was being clasped in an embrace and silent tears were spilling from her eyes onto his shoulder.

"I wasn't… I wasn't sure if you…" she struggled out, but he put a finger to her lips.

"I have always and will always love you," he said gently. "Never doubt that for a moment." She simply nodded and allowed herself to be held, trying not to think of the awful thing that must come next.

* * *

Sol turned from them and stared at the empty dark ground, trying in vain to ignore the ache. The phoenix necklace that Andromeda's Zoi had become for him weighed heavily on his chest. He clasped it in one hand and traced its outline with his thumb. Sol's eyes were vacant and far away.

* * *

Polaris only signed with relief. The whole mess was over and done with. Companion was dead, Alpha was avenged, Kathleen had been rescued and Sirius potentially tearing up half the Universe in rage was no longer an issue. Practically all of his concerns tied up in a neat little box with a ribbon on top. Normally, Polaris would have been very content to simply go home and forget that this entire mess had ever happened. But he realized that he didn't want to just leave them here. He wanted to make sure that everyone got out of this last chapter of their situation okay. Polaris smiled to himself when he realized that he honestly cared about what happened to Sol and Sirius and Kathleen. His thoughts flew back to the day when he had come to Sirius' sphere for the sole purpose of getting rid of Kathleen, to "exterminate" her. He shuddered. Andromeda and Sol had been there too, and he had practically ignored them, he just saw them as threats to his mission of ridding the Universe of the Earth-Child.

Who had that unfeeling creature been? The creature whose zeal for the protection of the Universe had been the sole reason that he had accompanied them into Unknown Space?

Now Andromeda's death weighed heavily on his heart. He saw Sol looking more depressed than even Sirius was and, putting two and two together, realized why Sol was so upset at Andromeda's passing. This caused him to feel for Sol as well. But seeing Sirius with Kathleen made him feel overjoyed!

Tears sprang into his eyes and he wondered where they had come from. He wondered if so much emotion felt for the subjects of the Universe was a good idea for a luminary in his standing. Then he pushed the thought away when he realized that it was a remnant from the old Polaris. The Polaris who's only friend was a luminary being controlled by Companion.

This new Polaris turned toward them and his smiled broadened.

His friends.

* * *

She finally pulled away from him and looked up at him with sorrow in her eyes.

"It's not over," she said softly. "One more thing has to be done, and I don't want to do it."

He looked at her with concern. "What is it?" he asked quickly. "I'll do it for you; you don't need to worry about anything ever again." She shook her head.

"No one can do this for me. It's something that I have to do entirely alone."

"What is it?" he asked again. She pointed to the monsters.

The monsters were still behind the wall of light that He had created. The light had been continually weakening until Companion had been destroyed. Then the light had sprung up to its full and complete height and the monsters cowered behind it. The Master was eying them, daring even one of them to try and come through. He would destroy it using its own darkness against it.

"The monsters aren't going to go away," she said sadly. "They're as much a part of this Universe as the luminaries are. But the luminaries cannot keep fighting them off. We have to seal them inside Unknown Space again."

"But this time we'll seal them from the outside," he replied. "We're not sealing you inside with them again." She shook her head sadly.

"No. If we seal them from the outside then someone can break it just like Companion did. Then all the luminaries, our children, will be in danger from them again! We have to seal it from the inside and the outside this time."

"But you're not going in there again. I will not allow it! I haven't come here to hold you for a few moments and then have you torn from my arms again! I'll go! I'll seal myself inside, you can stay out here!"

"You cannot. To seal it you have to use the Anti-Zoi, and I refuse to subject you to that. No one should ever have to come near that awful thing again. I will make sure of that."

"You!" he shouted, rounding on The Master. "You knew about this the whole time! Why did you tell me I could have her again? Why did you give me so much hope?!"

The Master slowly turned and fixed his piecing gaze upon His face. "I told you that you could have her again. I did not say for how long."

"You tricked me!"

"A little, yes. It is something I still cannot help, regardless of the human in me."

Desperation was etched into His face. "Please," he whispered to Her, his voice cracking. "Let me come with you. We can be sealed together forever. Please. Don't make me say goodbye to you again." Golden tears began in his eyes.

She couldn't help it. Despite her resolve to remain strong silvery tears started to stream down her cheeks as she listened to his plea. Her heart was being torn in two because of what she knew she must do. She wanted nothing more than to stay with him forever, to be beside him and to be held and to kiss him. But she couldn't. She couldn't let him be corrupted by the Anti-Zoi, and she couldn't leave her children all alone out there without any protection.

"No, my love. I won't let you. Someone has to stay outside and protect the children. What happens if some other horrible thing comes through from another Universe? Who will protect them? You have to stay and guide them. That's your calling."

"But what about you?! You always wanted to protect them! Stay outside with me, we'll guard Unknown Space together to make sure no one breaks the seal!" He was grasping at straws now, refusing to believe that he could only have her back for such a short time. He had this all planned out before he even laid eyes on the castle! He was going to rescue Her, and take her back to the Universe with him and they would never ever worry about Unknown Space or the monsters ever again. But seeing her again after all this time had completely shattered his resolve. He didn't want to do anything right now but stay with her regardless of circumstances.

"You know I cannot do that." Her words were like daggers in his heart. "I've gone over it again and again in my head, and this is the only way that we can ever be sure that they won't run free again." She suddenly looked up at him fiercely. "Do you think I want to do this anymore than you? Don't you think all I want to do is…" Her voice was choked off by a sob. He opened his arms again and she gratefully stepped into them, wrapping her arms around his neck. He mentally chastised himself for making her cry like this. Of course this wasn't easy for her! She turned his face up towards his and he kissed her gently. She returned his kiss, savoring every last sensation, knowing she would never experience it again.

* * *

"Kathleen?" A far away voice. A beautiful, melodious voice. "Kathleen?"

"She's exhausted," an angrier voice. Protecting her. Sirius.

"I need her help."

Kathleen was almost afraid to open her eyes. The last time her eyes were open they couldn't see anything but a swirling darkness.

Her eyes fluttered open and her heart sank. She could feel Sirius' arms under her back and knees, supporting her, but she couldn't see him.

"Sirius," she said, slightly panicked, "Sirius I can't see anything!"

But before Sirius could reply she felt another presence quickly approaching. A good, dark presence.

"It's not permanent," The Master said. "Just all the light overloaded her eyes. I can fix it. Close your eyes Kathleen." She obeyed and felt a cool hand slowly graze across her eyes. She could feel Sirius stiffen nervously. He doesn't want him to hurt me, she thought happily.

"Okay, all done," he said.

This time when Kathleen opened her eyes the first thing they saw was Sirius' smiling face. She grinned back at him and asked to be let down.

The Master was standing a few feet away, also smiling a contented smile. Polaris was distant from her, but smiling. Sol was the farthest away, and looked miserable. It was then she noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Andromeda?" she asked, and immediately regretted that she had done so. Why did she feel as if she already knew the answer?

"It was Alpha," said Sirius. "Alpha was being controlled by Companion and he murdered her."

Immediately an empty place was created in Kathleen's heart. This couldn't be! Andromeda was wonderful and gentle, why should she have to die?

Through the tears forming in her eyes she could see Her and Him standing together, lost in each other's eyes. She had been the one to call her. She needed help again, and Kathleen would be only too happy to oblige.

* * *

Sol shook himself out of his daze in time to see the silver luminary with three wings calling out to Kathleen. She was standing by Him and there were tears on her cheeks. Confused, Sol went over to Polaris.

"What's going on?" he asked. Polaris was about to shake his head, but suddenly the voice behind him made them both jump.

"She has to stay here" It was The Master.

"Kathleen?!" cried Sol.

"No, of course not," the shadow replied. "The silver one. Her. She has to stay here and seal Unknown Space so that the monsters can never threaten the Universe again."

"But that's not fair," said Polaris. "She's been stuck here for thousands of years!"

"Of course it's not fair," replied The Master. "But it is what She wishes. She wants to protect the luminaries. And nothing is going to stop Her from doing what She believes is right."

* * *

"Kathleen," She called again.

"Yes," she replied, and slowly walked toward her.

"Kathleen we have one thing left to do. I have to seal Unknown Space from the inside with the Anti-Zoi. You have to stay out here and seal it from the outside with that Zoi. The only way it will stay shut forever is if we seal it with darkness and light."

"I guess I understand," she said, "But if you seal it from the inside, doesn't that mean…"

"Yes, it does. But remember our talk?" Kathleen nodded. "Well, I now know without a doubt that He still loves me. That's going to be enough for me. I can stay inside knowing that. Even if I never ever hold him in my arms again, at least I will always know." Kathleen got the feeling that this speech was meant for Him more than it was for her, and as such she kept silent.

"You're going to have to seal it at the same time I seal it. Just send a stream of power from the Zoi to me, and follow what I do."

With a sad smile on her face, she hugged Kathleen briefly and then She went back to Him.

Kathleen tightened the grip on the Zoi she still held in her right hand. The thorns dug into her skin and she felt blood beginning to well up in her fist. The tears that had been solely for Andromeda were now for Her as well. Sirius swiftly walked over and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Kathleen covered it with her left hand and let the warmth course through her.

Polaris, The Master, and Sol, now all fully understanding what was about to happen, came to stand with Kathleen and Sirius.

* * *

He kissed her for what He knew would be the last time. When She pulled away she allowed the tips of her fingers to dawdle on the backs of his palms. She drank in his fire, determined to remember for all time what it felt like.

She backed away from him slowly. The Anti-Zoi was lying on the ground near where the battlements of the castle had been. As she picked it up in her fingers she shuddered as she felt its evil try and flow into her. But she easily resisted. She had His love to fend off the hate.

He backed away to stand in line with the other luminaries. He took one last look at her as she was, silvery hair long and wavy, eyes bright and brilliant. Then he shut his eyes and concentrated on that image. That was the last image he wanted to have of her. Knowing she was about to be consumed by darkness, he kept his eyes shut throughout the entire Sealing.

With one last smile at them, She brought the Anti-Zoi over her head in both hands and tendrils of darkness began to swirl around her. Kathleen mimed her with the Zoi she held and was consumed by tendrils of light. Beyond the light she sensed the silver luminary and the darkness, and sent all of her power in that direction. Simultaneously, the dark power rolling out of Her came to meet the light.

* * *

_Good job Kathleen. Now can you feel the doorway?_

_Yes. One side of the door is made of light and the other side is made of darkness. _

_Yes. But there is still some Unknown Space on your side of the door. You have to push all of it through. _

_I can feel the edges of it… My God my side seems so small compared to yours! _

_The true extent of Unknown Space is horrifying, but the small section on your side will be terrified of your light. Use it to scare the darkness through the doorway._

_My… my head…_

_It's okay, your body isn't used to so much power coursing through you. _

_I think… Yes, that's all of it. _

_Now close the door, and see the lock?_

_Yes. _

_When I count to three, we'll both lock the door. Then we'll be completely cut off from each other. _

_Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?_

_Yes I am. _

_Okay. _

_Are you ready?_

_Yes. _

_Alright then. 1, And Kathleen? 2, Thank you. 3, Thank you so much. _

_Goodbye._

_Goodbye. _

* * *

Kathleen didn't fall this time because there was nothing to fall to. Where the luminaries stood there was no Unknown Space any longer. Sirius had been supporting Kathleen for the better part of five minutes as she finished helping Her to seal the door. They only thing they had seen was Unknown Space retreating in on itself to just before where She had been standing. Now they drifted in some kind of limbo, where there were no nearby stars by the darkness was not as oppressive. It felt freer here, and they all noticed it.

The light stopped swirling around Kathleen and she sagged against Sirius in a dead faint. He once again placed one arm under her back and the other under her knees to carry her. They would finally be going home.

There was nothing more to see in front of them, only the black wall that now sealed Unknown Space. So they turned away. Lights glittered from far above them. They had emerged to see the stars once more.


	26. Iris

I'd give up forever to touch you, 'cause I know that you'd feel me somehow. You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be and I don't want to go home right now. And all I can taste is this moment, and all I can breathe is your life. 'Cause sooner or later it's over. I just don't want to miss you tonight – Iris – Goo Goo Dolls

* * *

Stay lady stay, stay with your man a while. Why wait any longer for the world to begin? You can have your cake and eat it too. Why wait any longer for the one you love when he's standing in front of you? – Lay Lady Lay – Bob Dylan

* * *

Slowly they began to fly back. No one spoke. Sirius, carrying Kathleen, flew at the front, Polaris and Sol almost abreast in the middle, and The Master and Him brought up the rear. 

It seemed wrong to break the silence, like a dishonor to the sacrifice She had made No one even looked at each other. They stared ahead, concentrating on the pinpricks of light that were steadily growing larger.

They lost track of time, the same way they did while travelling to the palace to rescue Kathleen.

But suddenly Sirius stopped short. Polaris nearly crashed into the back of the green luminary but swerved to the right at the last second.

It was obvious what had made Sirius stop so short.

Andromeda's body hovered there. All the pink light she had once burned so fiercely with was completely gone.

Sol came around on Sirius' left. He took one look at why Sirius had stopped and turned away. He flew around the body, not looking at it and took off toward the light. Sirius took one last look at Andromeda and followed his friend.

Polaris stayed where he was for a moment. The Master and He would require some sort of explanation, and as representative of the… No. They could deal with this on their own. Polaris took off after Sirius and Sol.

The Master and He looked at the dull pink corpse at their feet. Then they looked at each other.

* * *

A large blue something Sirius previously thought to have been a star was now a group of light blue somethings that he was sure were luminaries. But who would be coming down here? 

Sol, following behind him, didn't seem to notice the approaching group, but Polaris, flying alongside, suddenly gave a cry of amazement.

"The Initomi?! What are they doing here?"

And Sirius realized that indeed it was. As they flew closer he could distinguish Rigel's figure leading the pack of maybe a hundred Initomi, determination etched into his face that immediately blanched when he recognized Sirius. Sirius immediately stopped his progress toward the spheres and stiffened as he remembered his last few encounters Rigel. But the approaching group seemed not to notice this change in Sirius, and their leader raised an arm in a confused greeting as he approached the green luminary.

"Sirius…" he began. "What are you doing here? Where is He?"

"We're going home," Sirius replied. "It's over."

"Are you joking?" Rigel asked incredulously. Sirius was almost completely taken aback by this side of the "former" leader of the Initomi. During their last two encounters, Rigel had attacked Sirius alone with twenty Initomi, and then surrounded his sphere with fifty of them and tried to block Sol and Andromeda from entering. Andromeda said that Alpha had relieved Rigel of his duties, but that clearly wasn't that case. What was going on here?

"What are you doing here?" asked Polaris, echoing Sirius' thoughts. "Last I heard you were stripped of all your duties as leader!"

"Well you've only been hearing Alpha's side of it," said Rigel. "But before I say anymore, are you sure it's over? The Master and Him are okay, everything is done?"

"Yes!" said Polaris irritably. "Now tell me what is going on!"

"To make a very strange and very long story short, here goes. One day this strange shadow appeared to me. He said that something was coming to threaten the Universe, and that I could have a hand in stopping it. He also said that Alpha was going to start acting very, very strange toward me, and start promising all sorts of things. But I must never ever believe what Alpha said for a minute. If I started to believe him than the whole future of the Universe would be put in jeopardy. There wasn't any way I was letting that happen. So I had to play along with Alpha. Once Kathleen entered the picture, the shadow came to me again. He once again made me assure my loyalty to him, and made me promise above all else that I would protect Kathleen. Everything the shadow said was going to happen happened, so I had no reason to question him. I began to report to the shadow everything that Alpha told me to do, from kidnapping Kathleen to keeping the Initomi patrols away from the spheres of Sirius, Sol, and Andromeda.

"Then a few days ago the shadow told me to come to His sphere. I was confused at first, who was I to be in His presence? But I listened to the shadow, as always. He was the one to put me back in charge of the Initomi, and made me set patrols all throughout the Universe, with orders to detain any monsters, not to kill them under any circumstance. Once that was done, I was to gather a large group of my best warriors and come to Unknown Space where the final battle would be. But I cannot believe we're late!"

Polaris suddenly understood who the "others" were that The Master had mentioned, and wanted to punch Rigel for all the grief they could have been spared.

"But why did it take you so long to get here?" he nearly screamed. Rigel looked at him sheepishly.

"We got word that all hundred of the Celestial monsters were tearing up the universe in one section or another, and that they were trying to come back into Unknown Space. The Master mentioned something about you all having to fight these monsters, so we stood guard for a long time until the rest of the Initomi got to the border of Unknown Space and took over. I swear we would have been there sooner if we had known what you were going through!"

Utter confusion engulfed both Sirius and Polaris. If the Celestial Monsters were all out in the Universe, then who had they been fighting in Unknown Space? Then suddenly, realization dawned upon Sirius' face.

"Polaris, remember how weak the monsters were?" Polaris nodded slowly, immediately seeing where Sirius was headed. "If they're born in Unknown Space, why wouldn't part of them stay behind while the stronger part of them left to do Companion's bidding? If Rigel hadn't kept them here…"

The thought of what would have happened had they had to fight all hundred of the monsters at full strength was something both of them wanted to instantly forget. The anger Polaris had felt for Rigel instantly melted away, to be replaced by overwhelming gratitude.

"Rigel… I.." the white luminary began lamely.

"Thank you," Sirius finished for him. "You've just saved every single one of our lives."

And with that, Sirius and Polaris departed, with Sol trailing them like a lost dog. Rigel looked after them for a moment, slightly confused at what had just taken place. Then he grinned, shrugged his shoulders, and kept travelling down to where he saw a pinprick of golden light next to a strange purple shadow.

* * *

They saw Sol safely home first, entering his sphere and ending up in the main hallway. The guards immediately called for Sol's personal servant. When Firiana took one look at her master she almost screamed. 

"What happened to him?" she cried. "What did you do to him?! Sirius I'll have your wings for this! You've been gone for days! DAYS!!"

"Be quiet," said Sol softly. "Sirius had nothing to do with any of this." Slowly he began to walk up the main staircase.

"Sol?" The orange luminary turned to face Sirius.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry things had to turn out this way."

"That's alright," Sol replied. "I went into Unknown Space to help you. At least that didn't go wrong. You got what you wanted, and one of us is happy."

Sirius watched his best friend drag himself up the stairs and disappear into the left hallway. He had never felt so helpless to aid him.

"Look after him Firiana," Sirius whispered. "I'm worried." With wide, fearful eyes, Firiana turned her face toward him.

"So am I."

* * *

Polaris then made sure Sirius got home without incident, and took off toward his own sphere, forget the Council and their demands for protocol. This incident should be kept private for now, and Polaris wasn't about to betray his friends for the rush of being the first to report it. 

Sirius took Kathleen to her room, laid her on her bed and pulled the sheets up around her. He was in the doorway before he turned back to take a last look at her.

Her eyes were closed, and all the lines in her face were completely gone. A small smile played about her lips, and her hair fell around her face in waves.

All the pain and worry he felt over Sol and Andromeda vanished for the moment. Who would have thought that Sirius, the raging luminary, would ever find love? She may not love him back, but her actions certainly made room for love to blossom one day. Sirius suddenly felt an urge building up inside him, one that he couldn't deny. So he shut the door behind him, flew down the hallway, and let it go. He burst out laughing.

He laughed to defy the hell they had gone through, to mock the hatred she had held for him during their first weeks together, and to confirm in his mind the happiness and love he felt right at that moment. Everything suddenly seemed to fit right into place. Never mind what was going to come tomorrow, for now, he was unbelievably ecstatic.

Then a shadow appeared in the doorway, and his laughter suddenly ceased. The Master had come to pay a visit.

* * *

How long have I known? I'm not sure. 

I was aware of the existence of the Anti-Zoi ever since I became aware of the Universe that surrounded Earth, but I didn't call it that or know exactly what it was at first. I could feel its great dark presence, its overwhelming power, and it terrified me. What something like that could do to Earth…

When Sirius' Zoi first appeared, I admit I was scared. I didn't know what the thing was, but it radiated the same amount of power that the dark thing had, but a different _kind_ of power. So I kept it, keeping it out of harm's way and keeping others from using it.

When those human children showed up and told me what it was, I was intrigued. This Zoi, it could transform me into what I had longed so long to be, a human! But that little girl, I took a special shine to her. Just wanting to talk to her dog, not realizing what it was. I thought then that she was destined for much bigger and better things than the miserable lot life had handed her. So I didn't give her the wish she wanted. I believed I was protecting her. I suppose I was wrong.

She did turn me human, though she didn't know at all what she was doing. "Don't do that!" she had said. That's what did it, that's what turned me into one of them.

But because she did it wrong, I still kept most of my powers. I had a half existence, with one foot in the world of humans and the other in the world of the other things, the other powers. I was hit with things I had never experienced before; the foremost among these were emotions. And the strongest emotion I felt was for that little girl. As I became more acquainted with these emotions and what they meant I realized that the feelings I had for her were love, but only in the way a parent loves their child. I looked upon her as my little daughter, and I was the silent father in the background.

I wanted her to be happy, and I knew that because of her life on earth and her connection to the Star World that she would never be happy here. I also knew of Sirius, and how his feelings for her grew into love as the years went by. I had despaired of ever becoming human, but once I became at least half human it was the sweetest experience I had ever known. I decided that the same must be for Kathleen and Sirius, that before they could have the most profound joy, they must first have the deepest sorrow. I decided to help shape Kathleen's life accordingly.

So I did what I thought was right. I caused Kathleen to forget almost everything that had happened that strange night. I left her with the impression that Sirius had killed her beloved dog.

I noticed that Sirius kept trying to make her life on Earth better and happier. Some things were chance, Kathleen getting cancer the first time, for instance. But the things like her husband leaving her and the cancer coming back were things of my doing. That man wasn't good enough for her, and had been doing things with other women long before he left Kathleen. I made the cancer come back because I knew of the Committee's decision to force Sirius to get a new Companion. Sol thought of how Sirius could bring her to the Star World himself, but I would have intervened if he hadn't thought of it fast enough.

Yet long before Kathleen ever went to live with Sirius, I felt a growing darkness somewhere in the Universe, and it was not a good darkness. In strange dreams I saw luminaries being corrupted by this darkness, but the only one I was able to distinguish from any of them was Alpha. I knew it was him because he had visited Earth once, while Sirius was still a dog.

I immediately began to take action against this growing evil. I appeared to Rigel, the leader of the Initomi and loyal to the Council to a fault. I also appeared to Him, but he didn't listen to me at first. He refused to talk to me, and I almost believed him to be a lost cause.

The doctors killed me several weeks after Kathleen left Earth, but I now had my full powers back and a human soul as well. Like Kathleen, I could now do things I could never do before such as travel to the Star World in my physical body, rather than just appearing in dreams and as shadows.

But I became too involved with things on Earth. I had been away from my post so long I had to clean up the mess that had been created. My mother, Earth, was angry at me for rebelling against the path she had chosen for me, and had to be pacified. I noticed that the Celestial Monsters were roaming free again and I knew it had something to do with the evil I felt. But never… I never imagined that it could possibly be Companion! I had been playing a god for so long that it took a catastrophic occurrence for me to realize what I had done.

It was when Companion took Kathleen and I was helpless to do anything about it that I realized how wrong I had been. Who was I to try and dictate the lives of Sirius and Kathleen?! Sirius was already coming for her before I took my leave of Earth. I was tempted to follow him without reinforcement, but I knew that what awaited us inside would take more light to conquer than the luminaries that went with him had to offer. I didn't even realize that Alpha was the blue luminary with them, so set was I on my goal of enlisting the help of Him.

If I had noticed, I may have been able to save everyone a great deal of heartache.

We spent too much time getting Rigel and the Initomi all situated, and I was chomping at the bit to charge into Unknown Space. And if I had ignored them all and gone on without organizing them the monsters would have been at their full strength and we all would have died!

As it was we just barely made it in time. Maybe half a minute less and Sirius would have been too far gone for me to save. We could have all perished for hundreds of reasons at any given time! And it was all my fault. I was the one who endangered all the luminaries, who got Andromeda killed. I thought that nothing but evil had come out of what I had done, and I was through playing God. I righted at least one of the great wrongs that I had brought to these beings, and I intended to let Kathleen make a choice. It was after I finished telling… after I finished _confessing_ to Sirius. Kathleen awoke and it was the moment of truth.

But it was she who chose to teach me. My little adopted daughter was the one who brought me back up from despair, and showed me the light.

* * *

"Sirius," The Master said softly. "I wish to speak to Kathleen. I have to ask her something of utmost importance." 

"She's sleeping," replied Sirius. "She needs her rest."

"Then I shall wait here until she awakes. There is no rush." In truth, The Master needed to ready his nerves. Kathleen's answer would either crush him or elevate him. So much depended on a simple yes or no answer.

Sirius led him to a sitting room and they sat there in complete silence until the shadow finally spoke. He spoke his confession.

* * *

Sol lay on his bed staring at the orange wall of his sphere. There was no rest in this reclining pose; every one of Sol's nerves was tense and overly wrought. Firiana had come in several times and tried to make him talk to her but he wouldn't utter a word. He wouldn't even look at her. 

Sirius had gotten what he wanted most. He had won Kathleen back, and in all likelihood secured her love for him. But not Sol. He was just a best friend after all. Sirius was the lead in this silly drama. He was the one who had fought so hard for his happiness. Sol supposed he just hadn't fought hard enough.

"Sol!" It was Firiana again. "Sol please get up! This time it's important! Really!"

She had been using the same exact tactic to try and rouse him for the last few hours. Sol kept his lips silent and his eyes fixated upon the wall.

"Look there are people here to visit!"

Sol immediately had an image of Sirius, Kathleen and Polaris standing in his foyer, all smiles, trying to bring him out of his depression.

Good try. It wasn't going to work.

"Tell them to go away," he muttered in a monotone. Firiana made a sigh that sounded half exasperated and half worried. He heard her close the door to her bedroom and knew she was now standing outside in the hallway, probably leaning against the door, wondering what she was supposed to do with her master.

But then he heard something. It was several pairs of feet that were thundering up the stairs and down the corridor that led to his bed chamber.

"I'm sorry!" said Firiana, trying to sound authoritative. "Sol has informed me that he doesn't want to see you, and says you should come back another day, when he is feeling better."

"You can't be serious!" Polaris' voice. "Sol I know you can hear me, come out of that room this instant!" Sol didn't move an inch.

There was a loud banging on his door.

"Listen to him you fool!" That was the voice of Him. Sol was surprised. Why should such an important luminary such as Him condescend to visit him in his own home? But still he did not move.

There were a few mumbles from behind his door and then he heard another voice.

"Please come out Sol."

He didn't move after this voice either, but this time it was out of shock, not depression. He was sure his ears were deceiving him, how could such a thing be true?!

When he finally found mobility in his limbs he scrambled out of bed, tripped over the sheets, fell to the floor, clawed his way back up into a standing position while simultaneously rushing in the direction of the door, nearly crashed against it when he got there, and finally flung it open. He saw a dream.

She was there in all her fiery pink glory, smiling a beautiful smile just for him. Tentatively his fingers reached out and touched her cheek. It was warm. Could she be real?

Suddenly just touching her cheek wasn't enough, and he gathered her to him in an ardent embrace. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. He could feel her tears soaking through his shirt and they felt wonderful because he knew they were not tears of sadness. They matched the tears in his eyes, in that they were solely tears of joy. He didn't know how it had happened or why it had happened, but none of that really mattered.

Andromeda was alive.

* * *

There was a sound from Kathleen's room. Sirius immediately rose, but The Master motioned him back into his seat. 

"I'm sorry Sirius, but I have to talk to her before she sees you."

Sirius was not happy, but he sat down. He owed the Master much.

* * *

She had thrown off the dress that Companion had given her. She never wanted to see the ugly thing again, and wished she had fire herself so she could burn it, and maybe burn some of the bad memories along with it. In its place she had donned a blue blouse and floor length skirt. She felt cleaner and fresher without that cloth rubbing her skin. Kathleen was about to look into the mirror when a sudden noise made her jump. 

There was a knock at her door.

"Come in!" she called cheerfully, certain that it would be Sirius. When the Master entered her smile changed. It was still there, but it was a grateful smile, not a smile of love.

The Master hardly noticed any of this, so nervous was he.

"Kathleen… I have to tell you something, and after I tell you, I'm going to ask you a question. Please promise me you'll answer it as honestly as you can."

Confused, Kathleen nodded and sat down on the edge of her bed.

The Master told her an abridged version of what he had told Sirius. He did not tell her how he looked upon her as a daughter, or how he had implicated the highest luminary in existence in order to protect her. He told her the honest truth of how he made her forget, and tried to shape her life.

"But I'm sorry Kathleen. I never ever should have tried to affect you life as much as I did. I just wanted you to be happy!" Here his voice cracked. "All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. And now I realize that the only way you'll ever really be happy is if I let you make your own decisions." He turned away from her, and suddenly seemed to find the green wall of her room fascinating.

"I can take you back," he said softly. "Sol said that he could take you back in a year, but I can take you back now. You can have your old life back again, no strings attached. I can even make you forget about this whole place if you want. You won't miss it or think about it. It'll be like nothing ever changed." He sighed. "But it is all up to you. It's only your decision now. Do what will make you the most happy."

Kathleen remained silent for a few moments with a small smile on her face.

"Thank you," she said as she rose. The Master hung his head. He felt as if he had been shot.

"Of course you want to return. I'll understand if you want me to tell Sirius-"

"No," she interrupted, and she walked toward him. "I don't mean that at all. I mean thank you for giving me a way back. But I don't want to go anywhere." She smiled warmly at him. "Why should I want to return to where I don't belong?" He looked up at her, astounded.

"You mean you want to stay here?" he asked. "I wasn't all wrong?"

Here she stepped closer and embraced him.

"Of course I don't want to go back," she said. "This is my home."

The Master was not used to hugs, and it was several seconds before he awkwardly put his arms around her. His eyes grew misty as his head began to ring with one single thought.

His daughter was happy.

* * *

After he had gone Kathleen caught an image of herself in the mirror. She remembered that night on Earth that seemed like lifetimes ago. The night where she had stared at the woman in the mirror and asked her who she was, who she had been, and what was to become of her. Kathleen felt wonderful now as she touched the reflection that stared back at her. The strong, beautiful woman who stared back was herself, and she was full of something that she never thought she would ever feel again that night so many lifetimes ago. She was full of love.

* * *

"Sirius?" The green luminary whipped his head around at the sound of her voice. She was standing in the doorway looking absolutely beautiful and her lips were pulled into a smile that was just for him. Sirius got up and began to walk toward her and it was only when he stood before her did she continue speaking. 

"Sirius I don't know what to say," she began. "You went through so much to save me, and after the way I had treated you…"

He pressed a finger to her lips.

"There is only one thing I really want you to say," he whispered. "Perhaps this can help you think of what it is."

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. She did not shrink away, but to his delight she pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. When he pulled away from her he saw that there was a beautiful fire in her green eyes.

"I love you Sirius."

* * *

It was several months afterward that Sirius and Kathleen found themselves before the Council and Him. 

"The Council has reached a unanimous decision," He began. "Because mortals cannot stay in our world and live, Kathleen's mortality must be taken from her." At this he smiled. "For this procedure I call upon the aid of The Master of the Hunt, a child of Earth, as well as Andromeda, Effulgence of the Andromeda Denizen, and Sirius, Effulgence of the Sirius Denizen."

Andromeda left her place beside Sol as The Master and Sirius left their posts to join Him on the platform upon which he was orating.

Light began to emanate from Sirius and Andromeda's Zois as they raised them above their heads. The light shot out and enveloped Kathleen in its fiery embrace. The light around her burned white.

The Master added his darkness to the light around her and the color became a soft red. He was the last to add his golden light, and with that the light surrounding Kathleen became a deep, gorgeous blue.

The light felt wonderful. She felt the love and affection that each of the four felt for her, and it was enough to move her to tears. She felt her skin and body changing. It became airy and light. Warmth spread throughout her, and she realized that it was her own fire that now coursed through her.

Then, finally, came the wings. Three yards of fire and power burst out of her back on both sides simultaneously. The fire that coursed just below her skin burned even hotter. The effect was a dizzying feeling of complete euphoria.

The light around her began to dissipate but before she could even see through it clearly she saw a green blur swoop in and sweep her off her feet. When their lips met their fires mingled and burned together. Sirius saw that she had been transformed into a beautiful blue luminary with wings like his own. But her eyes. Sirius' smile broadened. Her eyes were still green.

"I can fly all by myself you know," she said, in mock anger as they burst through the sphere. "You don't have to carry me around all the time now."

"Of course I do," he replied. "You'd just hurt yourself if you tried to use your own wings and-" She silenced him with another kiss.

Andromeda and Sol were exiting the Council's sphere with their fingers laced together, and sidelong glances that promised kisses once they were out of view of the disapproving Council. Then Kathleen saw a smudge on the black fabric of the Universe.

A shadow was also leaving the Sphere from a different direction.

"Thank you, Dad," she whispered to him. The Master suddenly turned his head in her direction and grinned. Despite the distance, between them and the level of her voice, she knew he had heard.

She crawled out of Sirius' arms to try out her new wings and began to fall almost immediately. Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist and caught her, the power in his wings easily compensating for hers. She placed her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear.

"Teach me how to fly."

And as Sirius and Kathleen rose up through the Spheres of the Universe, the fires that trailed after them twisted around each other and created a strand of light that could be seen even from the remote reaches of Unknown Space.

Blue Fire and Green Fire.

Blue and Green.

The colors of Earth.

* * *

And in The End, the love you take

is equal to the love

you make

* * *

A/N: Well my darlings, here we are. It took more than two years with several long hiatus' that I sincerely apologize for, but it is finally done. I hope that everyone liked this story even half as much as I loved writing it. I want to thank all my reviewers, especially Anonymous-Cat and Honeyblank, who both reviewed what seems like every chapter, and Diana Wynne Jones for writing a book that stuck in my imagination and stayed there. 

Special, special thanks goes to my good friend VendettaRose who kept kicking my ass to finish this.

To all of my readers: Stay groovy. Listen to music and keep the ideas flowing.

Your Author

Windslayer, aka, Squire Sapphire

* * *


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